The aporia of art, pulled between regression to literal magic or surrender of the mimetic impulse to thing like rationality, dictates its law of motion; the aporia cannot be eliminated. The depth of the process, which every artwork is, is excavated by the irreconcilability of these elements; it must be imported into the idea of art as an image of reconciliation.
Theodor W. Adorno, Esthetic Theory(3)
One of the popular definitions of Aporia is “an expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical effect”. Yet there is much more to this word and its use as a tool to penetrate further for truth through a paradoxical questioning and deconstructing of a subject. Mirus Gallery San Francisco presents “Aporias” a group exhibition of international artists whose work revolves around the absence of narrative or a representational subject. At quick glance one might call the work abstract, yet I prefer to acknowledge the fact that these emerging artists work is detached from a historical sense or the term abstract painter. By leaving representational elements out of their work it has now become a form of representational abstraction. This new found paradox is where I have focused the lens to view this group of emerging artists. By removing something and creating a void, a new something is gained. “Aporias” reflects a new look at emerging artists working within this new post-historical subject of ambiguity, that ask more questions than they answer, and as the title suggests are a “a useful expression of doubt”. It is this raising of doubt through painting that each artist exhibiting represents through their work.
(quote Mirus Gallery)
Photos by Kathie Johnson
©2023 Julia Benz
