Open Source

Open Source is my first foray into curating. I’m very excited that this show has already been programmed for several venues in NC in 2023 and 2024- subscribe to this blog to get updates on openings and artist talks (as well as tons of great content about abstraction past and present).

Show Statement

In the world of software code (the hidden structure of much of the world as we view it) Open Source is source material that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Open source is a decentralized software development model that encourages users to take a set of tools and custom-fit them for a new purpose. At our current point in the history of making Art, there is also a decentralized framework within which abstract artwork can be and is made. No single artist or group owns the source of meaning for this modality, and a wide range of collaborations with and utilizations of the elements developed out of the historical canon is possible, as well as incorporation of content and materials from outside that world. In the space needed for and occupied by abstraction, an openness is required, for creator and audience. The artist must be open to the ways in which the source materials of the work, including subjective content, inform decisions about everything from composition to titles. And the audience must be open as well since abstraction’s signifiers (color, shape, surface) are non-literal. Perhaps most importantly though, the title of this show brings our awareness and acknowledgement to- celebrates- the variety of source material possible in our time of art making. Artists (in alphabetical order and repeated below) Freddie Bell, Sterling Bowen, Natalia Torres del Valle, Jason Lord, Peter Marin, Jean Gray Mohs, Cindy Morefield and Carson Whitmore all approach non-representational artwork from different vantages, personal and conceptual.

Let us know if you are also interested in programming this show!

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