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>> The Pursuit of Happiness
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Group Show Curated by Christopher Howard
John Bowman
Diane Carr
Rebecca E. Chamberlain
Jonny Detiger
Vandana Jain
Tracy Nakayama
Alexander Reyna
Kent Rogowksi
Carol Shadford
Jennifer Sullivan
December 1, 2006 - January 14, 2007 Reception: Friday, December 1, 7-9 P.M. |
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Sarah Bowen Gallery is delighted to present The Pursuit of Happiness , featuring ten New York – based artists: John Bowman , Diane Carr , Rebecca E. Chamberlain , Jonny Detiger , Vandana Jain , Tracy Nakayama , Alexander Reyna , Kent Rogowski , Carol Shadford , and Jennifer Sullivan . The Pursuit of Happiness explores representations of happiness in contemporary art as a question or proposition more than a definitive statement. Some works openly welcome this fleeting emotion into their iconography, while others harbor skepticism toward it by examining false notions of happiness in a consumer-driven society. (These conflicting views are often seen within the same work.) Other artists use tropes of happiness as a formal launching point into other areas. Whether happiness is bright colors, pretty pictures, love, sex, food, or a state of being is debatable; it is clear that happiness is an imperative motivating factor in human behavior and therefore it is also a motivating factor in art.
[ View Press Release (PDF) ] |
Christopher Howard
Curatorial Statement:
Generally speaking, happiness is a positive state of mind encompassing some level of joy, peace, exuberance, elation, and contentment. This is certainly a definition favored by the authors of the hundreds of self-help books lining the shelves at Barnes and Noble. While those kinds of books often give good advice for describing and achieving happiness, we find that, when digging deeper, a simple catchall definition or recipe just can't be found.
The concept of happiness has been the subject of philosophical inquiry for hundreds of years. Some points of views, including Buddhism and Cynicism, shun material, physical, and social comforts, taking solace in radical self-control and exile to extinguish passion and desire. Others believe any pleasure to be evil. Aristotle's and Epicurus's accounts, on the other hand, include a healthy social life and a certain amount of good luck along with the exercising of reason.
Happiness is also highly subjective. A tyrant or madman can arguably be happy, but for Kant happiness is intrinsic to morally good acts and Plato sees happiness as the greatest good in a virtuous life. Further, another definition of happiness would logically include diminishing pain and cultivating pleasure, but in trust a constant state of happiness would be quite boring. And some Christian philosophies as well as Nietzsche see pain and suffering as necessary, indeed expected, before obtaining happiness, whether in this world or beyond. Dozens of other thinkers and writers have dozens of other theories.
So where does art fit in? A primary aim of art is the understanding and communication of the human condition. If happiness is what we all want to achieve, in one way or another and for varying durations, then this state of being is bound to enter artistic work. Specific to this exhibition: many of the included works contain expressions of happiness and depict forms of pleasure, for example, friends and family, wealth and consumerism, love and sex, fantasies and childhood experiences, the natural world and the good life. (It should also be noted that nearly all artworks here are representational.) With a theme of happiness, visual clichés are unavoidable. But clichés, while occasionally trite, always have some element of truth and authenticity. These clichés, these representations, are attacked critically, while others are embraced unabashedly. Most works, I think, are ambivalent, which makes them part of rational thinking and necessary self-evaluation that people undertake to discover happiness in themselves and their lives. |
