Introverse: Allegory Today

Peggy Chiang, Janiva Ellis, Ektor Garcia, Michael Joo, Cindy Ji Hye Kim, Kyung-Me, Guadalupe Maravilla, Libby Rothfeld, Jacolby Satterwhite, Michael E. Smith, Sable Elyse Smith, Stewart Uoo

Curated by 80WSE Curator Howie Chen and artist Alex Ito

Introverse: Allegory Today intimates the allegorical turn in current artistic practice characterized by the psychological interiorization, libidinal symbolism, and melancholic contemplation of contemporary life. Featuring 12 artists, the exhibition presents diffused figurations and extended metaphors that embody the spiritual and political complexities of our times, traversing individual interiorities to reflect on the immensity of the outer world.

With each work, the surplus of significations, narratives and affects implode to reveal radical uncertainty coupled with the will to persevere. These allegorical modes reference and estrange our current reality, offering forking paths towards negation and becoming.

Extending Walter Benjamin’s view of European Baroque and Benjamin Buchloh’s analysis of post-war collage and appropriation strategies, Introverse takes stock of emergent allegorical procedures that mediate our political and social reality, constituting different ways “to speak publicly with hidden meaning”.