Exhibition

I See The Spotlight In You

Kyle Barnette, Chad Barry, David Brieske, Chris Byrd, Robert Chambers, David Quinn Kudsma, Timothy Phillips, Mette Tommerup, and Janese Weingarten. Curated by Clifton Childree.

July 27 - August 25, 2018

Reception: July 27, 2018, 6 - 9pm

Art that insists on social engagement makes us uncomfortable in the de-socialized era of the personal screen.

Selected Works

I See The Spotlight In You

Emerson Dorsch is proud to present I See The Spotlight In You, a group exhibition featuring work in various mediums by Miami-based artists and musicians, a blending of painting and performance. I See The Spotlight In You will include work by Kyle Barnette, Chad Barry, David Brieske, Chris Byrd, Robert Chambers, David Quinn Kudsma, Timothy Phillips, Mette Tommerup, and Janese Weingarten. Curated by Clifton Childree.

“Theoretically produced and consumed in isolation, painting is the natural art for a culture hooked on individualism and commercialism. Yet there’s obviously an inherent social aspect to art. Artists communicate with an audience of viewers through their work, but it gets repressed when we fetishize the solitary crafting and appreciation of objects.

It feels like an artist is rebelling when they are interacting with the audience, because that experience resists commodification. Art that insists on social engagement makes us uncomfortable in the de-socialized era of the personal screen. So we’ve returned, through live performance, watching film in an audience, or creating and experiencing installations, to a shared social experience.

So, what about painters, paintings, and their viewers?

In a real-time, three-way meeting of painter, painting and audience, the artwork loses its special function. The audience finds it is impossible to separate the object from the maker. The artist, in the presence of the audience must assume responsibility for the painting, and it becomes more like a backdrop, a context for a conversation. In the search for an audience, the painter reveals a desire for social contact. Each artist in this show has a unique relationship to the spectra of painting and performing. In the end they were chosen because the curator, Clifton Childree, knowing them all personally, realized he couldn’t tell them apart from their art.”

– Erin Thurlow

About the Artists

I See The Spotlight In You is a collective group show of art and performance curated by Miami-based artist Clifton Childree. The group includes musicians from the Noise and punk scene of 1990s Miami, working artists, professional installers, and curators living and working in Miami.

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December 1, 2020

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