Worthington Yards Presents Uplifters: New Beginnings from Old Stuff

Amber Kempthorne, Poles Apart-Where were you, Mixed media collage.

As a general rule, nostalgia in art is frowned upon. It’s a shtick that makes people feel like they should care about your art more than they should, because it’s familiar, and sometimes stagnates as sentimentality. Nostalgia is viewed as an intellectual and aesthetic crutch that prevents cultural artifacts from reflecting their own epochs.

With that in mind, we are coming out of the darkest epoch of our times, and the artists in Uplifters chisel form and content from throw-away, orphaned, and abject materials of the past (and the unwanted, or from the hoard) that carry with them the survival signifier. What comes next? Is it jouissance and inventiveness? The Uplifters show leverages us to think about new elevations and alternative vistas. These artists make predictions with a forecaster’s wonder that new things are coming around our corner. A positive bright color, glee, joy, and encouragement that we all can get lost in right now.

The “new normal” is inconceivable and hard to imagine as we navigate this evolving pandemic, so these artists adapt and innovate, through resuscitating materials from the past to create contemporary content and future-leaning possibilities.

 

UPLIFTERS: NEW BEGINNINGS FROM OLD STUFF | JULY 10–AUGUST 25
OPENING NOON-3PM SATURDAY, JULY 10
Featuring works by Eleanor Anderson, Andy Dreamingwolf, Amber Esner, Connie Fu, J. Leigh Garcia, Amber Kempthorne, Loren Naji, Edward E. Parker, Ron Shelton, Judith Saloman, Stephen Yusko, and Jonathan Wayne.