In The Flesh II • July 22- August 30, 2009
Reception: August 13, 6-8pm - Gallery Talk at 7pm

Figurative art has had a resurgence in recent years, no doubt brought on by the barrier-breaking internet and its promise of access to all kinds of social information - including things previously kept private – that emphasize what strange and fascinating creatures we are. Witness the popularity of YouTube.com, where the more extreme the videotaped image or behavior is by social consensus, the more frequently a link goes viral and gets viewed. Our self-absorption knows no bounds. Our bodies are endlessly fascinating.

Concurrent with this technological phenomenon is an international spate of important survey exhibitions of such figurative artists as Willem De Kooning, Francis Bacon, and Alice Neel. The Hirshhorn currently has its “Strange Bodies” exhibition on view with works in all media that span the 20th and 21st centuries, and The Phillips Collection is presenting the historic survey “Painting Made Flesh.” Clearly there is something in the wind.

The organizing premise of this juried exhibition is figurative work. From over 800 submissions, it was extremely difficult to cull an exhibition of only 27 works. Many very fine works were sacrificed in the final few rounds of jurying. My primary criterion was to select works of artistic quality, sometimes traditional and sometimes not. Clearly the poetic, the mysterious, the contemplative, the whimsical, the political, and sometimes the dark side of humanity characterize many of the works on view. This may be attributed to my juror’s bias that includes a predilection for a good imagined story.

Figurative work in general encompasses a broad range of genre and technique. For the works at the Target Gallery, I aimed to assemble a collection of art that reveals the power the figure has to engage the viewer whether realistic, expressionistic, surrealistic, documentary or mediated by another medium. As an audience we more easily identify with figuration as we already have an entrée into the work of art by virtue of the subject. Given the depicted content, we then by nature project narratives onto the work, so we become an active participant in the interpretation of the work. These stories are the deeply seated human connection that binds us to each other and to the art on view.

Many thanks to the astounding number of artists who submitted from around the country and to the staff at the Target Gallery, especially Mary Cook, for providing a wonderful opportunity to get to know work of so many artists in far-flung areas.

Andrea Pollan
Juror