Curatorial Project: Reconciling America
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Co-curated with Joyce Grimm & Meg Shiffler
Reconciling America: Miraculous Encounters with the Mundane, featured works by twelve artists at both the SFAC Gallery at 401 Van Ness and at the window installation site at 155 Grove Street.
The American archetype is rooted somewhere in anthems, slogans and amendments – yet under this big blanket where do the lives of average Americans fit in? Americans are born into the world and rush to grow up - all the while attempting to make sense of their lives through direct encounters and an ever-expanding glut of mediated experiences of the world. In our quest to understand and to be understood, new technologies have made it easier to record observations and create personal histories. This is evident in the countless home movies, scrapbooks, blogs and personal web pages created by average Americans. Alternatively, the history of art practice is deeply rooted in creating individual systems for understanding and documenting. Reconciling America reflects the varied strategies each selected artist employs when confronting their surroundings. Exhibited works range from painting to video to installation and actively demonstrate how the artists grapple with, or attempt to reconcile their relationships with America.