Survival, Spirit, Dreams, Nightmares

Exhibition "Survival, Spirit, Dreams, Nightmares" brings together four artists – René Hugo Arceo, Peter Dallos, Mark Nelson, and Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern – addressing personal journeys within unique cultural milieus. Each comes to their work from a position of processing serious socio-political conflict – ethnic discrimination, colonialism, genocide, and persecution – both past and present. Unresolved by an external world gone awry, they have turned to internal realms of existence for meaning. Anger, loss, impartiality, separation, discomfort are among the issues they address, mediated through different coping vehicles. Arceo balances activism by connecting to his native and sometimes mystic origins; Dallos addresses the tension between Western and non-Western civilizations through the industrial weight and beauty of natural materials; Satire and humor shape human resilience in the works of Petrovsky-Shtern; and for Nelson, colonial affiliation is offset by the sometime detached but empathic observer.