Between Realms

A Solo Exhibition by Figwürm

 

April 13 - May 11, 2024

Open Saturdays 3-6 p.m.

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Opening Reception: Saturday, April 13, 3-6 p.m.

Closing Reception: Saturday, May 11, 3-6 p.m.

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Through experimentation with figuration, the artist Figwürm utilizes painting and installation to question what it means to be — specifically, how the self is (in)formed and then defined.

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Between Realms, addresses the question of reality from multiple, intersecting vantage-points. Our physical existence is inherently tied to the constraints of space and time. However, our inner selves often transcend the limitations of the physical world. Dreams and visions serve as gateways into this abstract space. This dream realm informs and then uncovers layers of our identities that may not be immediately accessible within our daily lives.

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Additionally, society plays a pivotal role in shaping our identities. From familial structures to educational systems, institutions exert great influence over our behaviors and interactions with others. Government control, in particular, can impact individual identity through laws and regulations that dictate societal expectations. As such, identity formation is an incredibly complex mechanism and an infinitely occurring process.

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In this exhibition, each representative mode exists apart from and in tandem with one another, depicting the paradoxical experience of perception and being. Coincidentally, Figwürm employs cubist techniques and abstract portraiture to mimic reality through a metaphysical and socially-critical lens. By joining fragmented perspectives of singular forms into a unified body or scene, his artwork visualizes the self (and reality) as it exists in multiplicity.

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To the artist, the figure operates as an exploratory vessel to inspect and navigate the common ground between these realms; rigidity and structure contrasted by fluidity and liberation. Collectively, the work exists in an unsettled space, fusing abstraction and figuration, which in-tandem with the concealed central subjects, encourages a broader, dynamic dialogue on the nature of reality. In this context, Figwürm manipulates shape, color, and light to signify the effects of social and optical functions on perception, while simultaneously questioning how bodies experience themselves.

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Figwürm’s work relies on honing their intuition, their work becoming an almost prophetic glimpse into that dream space, or other non physical realms. Encouraging this spirit of intuition, the artist created a painting directly on all surfaces of the gallery walls, the wall becoming another moment of expansiveness, collapsing expectations, and symbolizing all that contributes to our often simplified or constrained explanations of selves. In Between Realms, Figwürm examines these dueling spaces, the perceived selves, and all that lies between.

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Facilitated by Chelsea Smith, PLUG