Sea Ode Opening Reception

“The subject of the sea is often historicized, but for contemporary artists it remains an alluring, devotional location and sometimes a material unto itself,” note Razdow and Vered. “A sojourn with the ocean is often now less particular to mechanisms of livelihood or distanced romanticism for artists, as it was in Winslow Homer or J.W.M. Turner’s day, but more an immersive and symbolic companion, a subject that allows for devotional and physical interaction within the act of art making, as well as psychic dives of metaphor that attempt to interact with the unknown.”

Both artists include works that grapple with personifications of the sublime. In Razdows “De Vermis in Se,” sea serpents writhe below fathoms, preening as they engage the viewer through their blooming, sequential heads. In Vered’s “Rain Dragons,” postulated elemental creatures arise out of the accidental and passive articulation of water falling on paint.