Exhibition · Thomas Erben

Art as Consciousness

Jan 15 – Feb 21

Art as Consciousness
Thomas Erben526 W 26th St, 4th Floor · Chelsea · Open today until 6thomaserben.com

About the show

Anna and Bernhard Blume, Eli Bornowsky, Mike Cloud, Róza El-Hassan, Barry Gerson, Harriet Korman, Mehran Mohajer, Dona Nelson, Adrian Piper

The increased interest in spirituality, alternate experiences and consciousness seems to be a reaction to the breakdown of scientific materialism from which reality has been organized since the Renaissance.

In its attempt to penetrate the ever smaller building blocks of our material reality, quantum physics, as most recently confirmed, posits that "the universe is not located". The previously established assumption that "consciousness arises from matter" is thus inverted to a new paradigm where consciousness, rather than matter, is the basis of everything.

From this point of view, reality is now understood as emanating out of an ever expanding creativity, confined by neither time nor space, exploring its own potential through individualized points of consciousness that pursue individual trajectories contributing to the ever evolving richness of what there is.

This new understanding requires that art, through its formal and material manifestation, points towards meaning as a charge which is open and unfixed. The works included in this show are partially drawn from the gallery's program, which has explored the "intangible in art" understood as a reminiscence, a connection to the all encompassing inner realm of consciousness.

About Thomas Erben

Thomas Erben began his professional career in the art world in 1989, as a private dealer focusing on contemporary American art. In 1993, Lorraine O’Grady ’s show Photo Images 1980-91 was the first exhibition organized in his private space, eventually leading to the opening of Thomas Erben Gallery, first located on Broome Street in SoHo.

More about Thomas Erben

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Art as Consciousness at Thomas Erben · Gallop