Artist in the Spotlight

Julian Vadas

Currently featured at the gallery.

My paintings hold testament to my ongoing investigation of consciousness. Specifically, I am interested in consciousness beyond personal identity, or what may be termed as non-local consciousness. Here I use the phrase personal identity to describe an agglomeration of various interrelated mechanisms of identity; including mind, intellect, memory, emotion, habit, body, culture and context. This complex of overlapping facets of identity defines and maintains the lens of self through which we experience the world. In this light, non-local consciousness can be seen as consciousness bereft of the confining parameters of self. Non local consciousness maintains all the potentiality of identity and self, but lacks the requisite boundaries of them. It is the substrate from which they actualize in the first place. This view of course posits consciousness as the primary reality, all phenomena being a manifestation or condensation thereof.

Non-local consciousness is accessed only experientially. It is beyond the scope of a cognitive or intellectual approach, for thinking—intellect and cognition—provides the fulcrum of self-centric awareness. Thus, my artwork is fundamentally experiential. Each of the organic, improvisational compositions is an evocative allusion to the experiential quality of non-local consciousness. It is not an asserted position on the nature of non-local consciousness, but rather a suggestion of the experience of it. This ambiguity is vital to the appreciation of an ineffable, trans-personal dimension of consciousness from the vantage of a rational, identity- conditioned being. Also importantly, a palpable conveyance of interconnectedness is of overarching significance to my concept.

Two further themes are centrally intrinsic to my work. Firstly, I cultivate the absence of spatial-temporal specificity—the absence of the defining context of recognizable time and space. And secondly, I invite the absolution of paradox—visual or thematic conflict presented so as to illuminate mutual compatibility rather than incongruence (i.e. gross/subtle, volition/response, entity/expanse). By this method my work is spoken in a language that is at once familiar and absorbable, yet also inconclusive and ungraspable. More than anything, my art affirms non-representational visual image as a potent and relevant vehicle for engaging a subtle and reflective examination of reality beyond the self.

Future Exhibition

Daniel Rhodes Saving Daniel Rhodes

May 10, 2014 – June 7, 2014 | Opening Reception Saturday May 10, 5 – 8 pm

“Saving Daniel Rhodes” is a special exhibition celebrating this innovative artist and his contribution to American ceramic art and education.

Over 100 works will be on display and available to collectors and museums.

2014 Exhibitions

Artist in the Spotlight TBA
New artists featured at the gallery bi-weekly | Beginning this spring

Past Exhibitions

John Schwarz Rigmarole
January 18 2014 – March 2, 2013 | Opening Reception Saturday January 18, 5 – 8 pm

Graceann Warn Finding True
October 12 2013 – November 30, 2013 | Opening Reception Saturday October 12, 5 – 8 pm

Jessica Joy Goldberg “Natural Phenomena/Synthetic Wonder”
July 11 – August 17, 2013 | Opening Reception Thursday July 11, 6:30 – 8:30 pm / coincides with the annual “Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights” music series

Joan Painter Jones & Michael Thoresen
2D3D
May 25 – June 29, 2013

Endi Poskovic, “big triumph | majestic land
Using representations of familiar imagery, Endi’s work proposes a range of eventualities. Hybridized narratives translate to unexpected scenarios, evoking place and time and exploring ideas of displacement, memory and reconciliation. A recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Pollock-Krasner, Camargo and McDowell Fellowships, Poskovic was educated in Yugoslavia, Norway and the US. He has exhibited extensively, representing the US in all major international print biennials and triennials. His work can be found at Harvard University Fogg Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Shanghai Art Museum. Poskovic is a Professor of Art and Design at the University of Michigan Penny Stamps School of Art & Design.
March 30 – May 11, 2013

2013 – 10th anniversary year!
“no plan B”
Kicking off River Gallery’s 10th anniversary year by showcasing all the artists we represent and introducing new artists on-board!
February 9 – March 16, 2013

10 under 40
Competition between 10 artists under 40, work in a range of media
November 10th – December 22, 2012