Bull in a China Shop

November 10th, 2020 - January 1st, 2021

Paul Anagnostopoulos

ON CHAOS | Chaos is the starting line. Having a strong classical foundation, I can’t help but think of its mythological definition: the first being, a primeval void from which all existence originated. In my practice, chaos is the spark of an idea, a bolt of inspiration. It begins as an enigmatic and often abstract feeling. I paint as a way to process this and develop my own understanding.

Jacob Dutton

ON CHAOS | Chaos is lack of order or direction. It’s a state that disrupts expected thinking to open possibilities for new ideas and answers. While dwelling in chaos can be painful and dark, transcending it is what allows you to see beauty in new places.I believe that chaos is a natural part of all artistic practice. It takes you off balance to help you find balance and meaning in surprising places and ways.

Austin Furtak-Cole

ON CHAOS | Chaos could be defined as disorder unbound to any rules, but that also seems like an impossibility as a human on earth — it also seems like it could be a state or condition we're inevitably a part of. On a small scale, perhaps I grapple with chaos by turning colors, shapes, emotions, experiences, inspirations, and memories, amongst other things, into recognizable images — some ambiguous articulation that teeters on an uncertain meaning, at once, within chaos, while also trying to make sense of it. In turn, the work potentially sparks something in the people who look at my paintings. This, in addition to having a general curiosity, causes me to continue to want to create things. 

David Heo

ON CHAOS | Man. I really don’t have a succinct definition of “chaos." Honestly, though, I don’t think chaos is a bad thing. It's a much-needed notion that I believe needs to keep existing and people shouldn’t shy away from talking about it. Chaos fuels realization. Chaos fuels progress. Chaos is this invisible external force that low-key provides artists this deep well of influence, inspiration, and information. For example, in my practice, I definitely utilize “chaos" as a quiet muse. By parsing and processing through all the daily internal and external chaos that I feel, it helps create all these endless potential narratives. Those open-ended narratives are what I present to the public. Chaos isn’t subjectively unique. Everyone experiences a form of it and because of that, it’s one of the most relatable topics that we can all bond over, you know?

Florine Imo

ON CHAOS | Chaos is freedom in a way. If you’re at peace with it, you can’t limit yourself. It’s important to not fear chaos but to dive underneath it and face it with passion and patience. If it ‘ends’ in chaos — great, now there is a possibility to make life out of it. Nothing is put into stone, everything is possible.

Already when I first sketch on the canvas, the sketches are overlapping lines of different colors of soft pastel. I don’t care if they are messy or chaotic, they capture the general idea, feeling and movement. Although sometimes in the middle of my painting I catch myself thinking “wait how is this supposed to look like again?” And I feel like I can’t see any more. But let’s be honest, everything is chaotic in the beginning. Starting something new, moving some where else; all is chaos until you’re used to it. I believe you can expand your limits of dealing or detangling chaos. Isn’t it a constant fight between chaos and boredom?

Noa Ironic

ON CHAOS | Chaos to me is probably what other over-controlling and organized people consider a minor lack of order. Truthfully, I struggle with order constantly. I am not a neat freak but there is a very certain order my chaos must be in - in other words, don’t touch my shit.

Adrian Kay Wong

ON CHAOS | I would define it vaguely as really anything that acts against your intentions. Specificity comes in how it manifests itself in either a material or abstract form, its degree of severity, and how passive or active the force. “Chaos” also ranges in scope from broader to more specific and personal dilemmas. The most obvious examples of the former right now probably being the pandemic, incidences of social injustice, and growing political strife. “Chaos” in the smaller scape, however, can sometimes be more poignant. I would say we face feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, and weakness almost daily. Personally, I try to focus on the latter case of “chaos”. It's something I have more control over. So I try not to view “chaos” in a negative light, as much as it may bring me discomfort. I find that in the moments most challenging and frustrating is where I'm tested in my discipline and resolve. I'd argue that it's a necessary part of my creative process. I try to look at it as the point in which my growth meets my current limitations and shortcomings. If this “chaos” is happening, then I know there's progress. Nothing worth having comes easy.

Abbi Kenny

ON CHAOS | I think chaos is when things feel out of my control, but also that is not inherently bad all the time. The most chaotic part of my practice is this stage I get to in every painting where there is stuff on the canvas, but usually, just big, messy areas of color and tape. This always happens when I am only about 1/4 way through a painting. I get really nervous that it will never get to where it needs to be. It feels so chaotic. Particularly with the areas of bright green and blue tape that are often discordant to the palette in the painting. After a while of just fighting that feeling through work, it starts to come together. But that stage hits me hard. While fighting through the chaos, my studio digresses from its tidy start to a complete disaster by the end–rags, used tape, paint chunks, empty tubes, paper scraps everywhere. Even though that sounds pretty unpleasant, it is also something I really love about painting.

Sally Kindberg

ON CHAOS | Chaos is something that I have gotten used to and am trusting more now, accepting that it is part of my practice and that everything will be ok. A painting or an idea is chaos, until you worked it out. Chaos is important to the creative process, chaos is when you are not in control, when new things can happen and it makes you a better painter. It is hard to look at, because it’s ugly, but when you have mastered it, it is so rewarding and all is hunky dory again.

Alyssa Klauer

ON CHAOS | I would define the word chaos as many things happening at once, making them indistinguishable or inexplicable. Chaos in a visual sense evades a concrete definition. In my work I am interested in the moments of tension before or after chaos- the liminal psychological spaces that are in slow motion, about to be spurred on by the transformations taking place.

Katelyn Ledford

ON CHAOS | Chaos is zero control and complete randomness with no order. I like the idea of controlled chaos as it’s a generative oxymoron for me in ways of making. The play associated with chaos allows me the freedom to react to what is happening on the surface of a painting. Not being in control of different mediums while applying them directly onto a canvas thrills me, a Type A control-freak. However, there is still control as it is no accident that I chose to do it in the first place. While my form of chaos has some order to it, it is still wholly unruly due to its relative value when compared to the other ways of making I use, such as photorealistic painting. 

Minaa Mohsin

ON CHAOS | Chaos is a state of things generally considered to be disorderly. Whether anything is chaotic or orderly is a matter of perspective. One’s clutter may be someone else’s treasure. A maker/ creator groups things together in a way that meaning out of meaninglessness is somehow evolved. Life as it is, anywhere and everywhere, is chaotic. So to create meaningfulness in life as being my purpose, I think whether things are by themselves meaningful or not, is not so important as the point that it is I, who has to bring new meaning to things which may or may not be meaningful already. Bringing a certain order to my chaos is what I believe I do when I paint. Beginning from an idea in my mind, to transferring many versions of it onto paper and then finally reiterating it on canvas. Like meditation, it is a means of channeling energy into a manageable and understandable mode of expression. Grappling with chaos for me would be practicing of a technique rather than overcoming a massive problem. The more complex the chaos, the more innovative the techniques become.

Josh Reames

ON CHAOS |  I think of chaos as a form of unpredictability, when order breaks down. As a painter grappling with chaos is just a way of making order in the picture. Color, composition, signs/signifiers, marks, surface, gloss vs matte, clean edges vs crude application, content; these are all components that have to be resolved to make a sense of order. The trick is doing it in a way that creates resolve that teeters on the edge of breaking down. 

Jack Shure

ON CHAOS | Occurrences that seem random and sporadic but are far from it. By entering the unfamiliar or - void - and coming back with something to share that I may not even understand fully.

Patrick Wilkins

ON CHAOS | Chaos to me is a subversion of order.  I think a harmonious balance of the two is important, but it is pretty easy for me to slip into the chaotic side of things.  I love having a sense of order in things, but it never lasts long. 

Rachael Zur

ON CHAOS | Chaos is disorder as well as fertile ground for artistic process and creativity. My studio is often in a state of disarray and in that setting, I’m able to find relationships between materials that are seemingly incompatible. Moments of chaos give me the opportunity to make my own meaning out of the random or confusing.