Moving from hurricane-prone Florida to a city with a failing infrastructure has increased my awareness of water’s seductive allure, destructive power, and alarming fragility. A key element of survival, water can be a source of inspiration, a precious commodity, a means of escape, and a threat. In her book Rising, aptly named author Elizabeth Rush visits shoreline communities on the verge of succumbing to the tides. Sharing her fascination with water and channeling Hokusai, Turner, the pre-Rafaelites, Monet, O’Keefe, and Hockney, the artists in this month’s H2O exhibition, selected from applicants for NOT REAL ART’s biennial grant, explore the spiritual, psychological, environmental, and socio-political connotations of water, playing with its ability to seduce, inspire, and provoke.
Looking back, it’s no accident our ancestors settled near rivers, oceans, and lakes. Since our planet’s earliest days, water has been a determining factor between life and death. From the Greek god Poseidon and the Lost City of Atlantis, to the Egyptian goddess of the Nile, and the sacred Ganges River, civilizations have recognized its mythic resonance. Featured on ancient vessels and mosaics, and celebrated through centuries of music, literature, and visual art, water has provided boundless fuel for creative exploration. Our July exhibition, featuring metaphysical divers, moonlit ripples, stitched waves, melting icebergs, and ancestral water spirits, touches upon a fluid array of themes and offers respite from temperatures in the nineties and above.
View H2O, then scroll down for details about the artists and their work.
Renewal and Escape
Several artists in the show focus on water’s Fountain-of-Youth-like promise of renewal. Kristen Thiele’s voyeuristic view of tourists lounging at a Palm Springs pool and Maria Pazos’ tranquil watercolor of a beachgoer gazing out to sea evoke thoughts of classic Hollywood cinema and French films set on the Côte d’Azur. Rae Sheridan’s exuberant portrait of her aunt Vickie enjoying a day in the sun captures the joyful abandon of an unconventional woman entirely comfortable in her own body. In her serene mountain landscape “Still Sunny Here,” Rebecca M. Fullerton contrasts the stillness and fragile beauty of a vivid blue lake with storms hovering out of view. Cheyenne Avila explores collective memories and ancestral myths in “Oracle #1 The Fish,” a collaged image of a woman fishing in a moonlit pond.
Environmental Threats
Vital for the survival of all living beings, water is being threatened and also poses a threat. In her darkly beautiful painting “Dissolve Me,” Devan Horton captures the devastating impact of garbage polluting the world’s oceans and lakes. Rachel Moser’s elegant multi-media installation “Where it Used to be Blue,” and Crystal Marie Garcia’s flooded view of Hialeah City Hall, address the catastrophic effects of melting icebergs and rising sea levels on low-lying communities. In the mixed-media painting “The Great Wave,” Whitney Alyssa Parker conjures the ocean’s fierce beauty and destructive power while paying homage to an iconic Japanese print. “River Elegy with Mary,” an audiovisual collage by Claire Maske, explores loss and grief on physical, emotional, and climate-related levels.
Merging With the Sea
Pushing the boundaries between fantasy and reality, Kevin K. Shah’s generative AI photograph plays with the idea of the body being largely comprised of H2O. At once mythical and futuristic, his liquid figure splashing across a city street hints at ongoing collisions between civilization and nature. Inspired by horror and graphic novels, “Comes the Tide,” a painting by Christy Savage depicting a bleeding woman dashed up against the rocks, reveals currents of violence lurking beneath the surface. “Element of Creation” by Ruthy Valdez and “Oceanside” by Tara Patrice employ surrealist motifs and unusual points of view to evoke harmony and oneness with the ocean. In her Transcendentalist-inspired tableau, “Moonlit Ripples,” Tiantian Ma blurs the edges between her subject and the water with resin, creating a dreamy nocturnal fusion.
Delving Beneath the Surface
In keeping with Millais’ Ophelia and Dali’s surreal aquatic landscapes, Locust and Kelly Eden use water to delve into the subconscious and reveal submerged truths. Locust’s “Metaphysical Deepdiver” and Eden’s existential underwater portrait, “Irreversible,” suggest deep encounters with the self. Through “Déesse de l’Eau,” a mesmerizing interpretation of a Senegalese water goddess, Abieyuwa Eigbobo hopes to amplify women’s voices and guide them to a better world. Taking a socio-political approach to delving beneath the surface, Xxavier Edward Carter calls out racial and economic imbalances by focusing on the profusion of swimming pools in white neighborhoods.
All images published with permission of the artist(s); feature graphic for H2O: David Schwartz.