IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

December 17th 2022 - February 7th 2023

Featuring Aris Azarmsa, Soojin Choi, John Denniston II, Gwen Hollingsworth, Mario Emes, Brenda Goodman, Melissa Joseph, Amra Causevic, Luján Pérez, Ivana Štulić, Derek Weisberg, Graham Durward, Jed Webster Smith, and Ke Francis

Swivel Saugerties is pleased to present In The Bleak Midwinter, a group exhibition that brings together fourteen artists spanning different generations, and spotlights emotive, contemplative work, a faction of art which is often overlooked in the current contemporary climate. The winter months coincide with a deceleration –  one that is often somber, long and trying  – whereas both people and artists, the minutiae come into focus, and small moments become more poignant due to the starkness of the weather.

During this season, without realizing, we often fail to notice how objects, nature, and our perception of them changes – light breaking through a bare tree; the look of a stranger; moments of tenderness; depression; pain; and pops of color pressed against grayscale backdrops. Our appreciation of what we have heightens, and our lives are less measured by what we want. 

The artist’s practice is most typically a solitary affair. For the artist, these austere winter months parallel their constant circumstances: the bulk of their lives spent in an isolated studio with stark scenery, bare walls, and their own thoughts. However, as viewers, we often only experience this period of isolation and contemplation during winter. While the winter landscape is not dressed in bright, varied colors, nor perfumed by flowering plants, the extremes of the season open up possibilities for focusing our senses on subtleties.  

Paul Cézanne once famously said, "a work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.”  In most cases, the looming shadow of creativity is made up of multitudes of ingredients, but never without a touch of madness, an undertone of anxiety, and a void of depression. We romanticize the artist, as they tread waters we, as the public, often attempt to keep our distance from. One of the artist’s greatest strengths is their ability to transcend and transfer basic human emotions, whether expressed intentionally or subconsciously, to the viewer. The feelings and experiences that artists pour into their work often remind us of our own struggles.

In The Bleak Midwinter highlights the idea that both the artist and the audience are integral to the work. Art is an unspoken request for our participation; it connects us to an experience and a level of a higher, more universal communication than human language can convey.  As humans, our perspective makes the eye the center of the world, our own life is the crux. An artist communicates, but they don’t cater, and challenge our centrifugal vision in order to instill a new idea, appreciation, or perspective. In the same way, the bitter cold of winter forces us to change our patterns and beliefs in regards to things that are usually neglected.