Post-Posthuman Exhibition talk and reception

Post-Posthuman Exhibition

The Post-Posthuman features work by 9 artiststs includong Lafayette's Ed Kerns, Daria Paniches and Jim Toia. Curated by Jim Toia and Taney Roniger (artist/writer & School of Visual Arts professor) the exhibition explores modes of artistic inquiry that point away from the apocalyptic rhetoric of our time and toward a vision of an era of renewed kinship with the Earth. Granting agency and intelligence to all of nature, the artists in this show work collaboratively with their materials, celebrating the wonder of physics and the contingency of all things. Political theorist Jane Bennett speaks of the “vibrant energy” and “thingly power” of inanimate matter. Ecophilosopher David Abram speaks of the “more than human“ gestures, actions and reactions that constitute the majority of the earth's activity. The great polymath and theoretician Freeman Dyson cites circumstance and contingency, the act of one event playing on another, as the primary factor in determining the shape of the world. Today even industry is forging partnerships with nature. Scientist Janine Benyus formed her consultancy, Biomimicry 3.8, to help industry leaders find design solutions by studying processes found in nature. "Nature is our mentor," Benyus says -- not our resource. Conjuring these ideas, the artists in this show are in intimate dialogue with the Earth. There is an embrace of the unknown and a willingness to share authorship of their work. For these artists, the idea of co-creating with the Earth is a social, ethical, and political act – one that heralds the end of human exceptionalism and advances a new way of being in the world. Artists: Xavi Bou, Ed Kerns, Daniel Hill, William Lamson, Pete Mauney, Daria Panichas, Leah Raintree, Taney Roniger & Jim Toia 

Post-Posthuman, 526 W. 26th St. suite 211 is on view March 30th. Gallery hours: 11:00AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday-Saturday