Destiny + Amnesia = D E S T I N E S I A

Curatorial Statement

By DH Dowling

Curator, Destinesia at Stephen Romano Gallery, NYC

1. Destinesia

   There is a realm that is known to artists. It is a realm where night is luminous. Where forgetting is powerful. A place where all must lose their way—

   Destiny + Amnesia = Destinesia.

   We lose ourselves to find ourselves.

   We peer through a lens; commit brush to canvas; juxtapose images—here the work is fierce and exuberant. We extend the boundaries of self. We stare down oblivion.

   Destinesia is a hypnagogic state, bordering on sleep, rich in theta waves, where dreams and reality mix. Here, we make contact with the creative spirit and converse with the elusive muse. Here, we find the courage to create.

   Destinesia is the realm of daydreams. Here, we let go. Shatter the routine. Question. Spark. Illuminate. Answer. Here, we have epiphanies. Lose our self-consciousness. Risk it all. Here, everything breaks apart and snaps together. Here, we delve in the dark. Here, we light up like neon. Here, we are in love with anarchy. Here, we are free.

   In Destinesia, we forget to remember. What is created lives forever. The mystery is deepened.

   Art makes us see.

   ---

   The Exhibit

   From the hauntingly beautiful to the vividly voyeuristic, Destinesia delivers a powerful collective transcendence.

   Assembled here for the first time, 33 trailblazing artists—from Spain, Poland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Montreal, England, and the US—unmask the world we really live in.

   This is an unprecedented group of amazing artists. They are abstract expressionists, surrealists, minimalists, hyperrealists, representationalists, illustrators, collagists, sculptors, poets.

   The work is analog and digital; spiritual and secular. They use oil on canvas, colored pencil, acrylic on panel, scissors, ink, marker, spray paint, found objects, bristle brushes, palette knives, graphite & mixed media on card, computers, image sensors, film, silver nitrate, Polaroids, words, conté crayon, silverpoint, aluminum leaf, and paint on reclaimed wood with historic nails.

   We are not where we thought we were.

   Cross the threshold of dreams with us.

   ---

   The Curator

   I grew up in a perilously small house in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. My father was a color-blind painter and misanthrope by genetic predisposition. He could not afford an art studio, so he worked in the kitchen of our single-family Cape every night after work.

   He set up his easel in front of the camera-shy stove and committed brush to canvas, listening to Bartók or Prokofiev, exhaling sweet-smelling smoke through his nose, teeth clamped hard on the stem of his pipe like a man biting a bullet to endure unthinkable pain. He drank regional beer until he could see the future.

   He taught me to observe the world around me with a thinking eye, and I developed a deep and abiding respect for artists.

   “Art Makes Us See” is paraphrased from Paul Klee’s quote, “Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.” My father introduced me to Klee’s book, The Thinking Eye, at an early age.

   Klee’s shuddering forms, supernatural hieroglyphs, and sensuous creatures had a great influence on me as a young man, quickly followed by Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico. These were my superheroes. They had superhuman sight. They could see through me. Through life. Through death. They saw me through adolescence into adulthood. They taught me to be fully present with eyes wide open.

   Art is a secret buried in the dark.

   We drag it from the shadows to disturb the peace.

   ---

   The Artists

   It is a privilege to present the unparalleled artists of Destinesia:

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   Stephen Cefalo

   The stars were aligned for Brooklyn painter Stephen Cefalo—he was born in the hometown of Albrecht Dürer on Winslow Homer’s birthday…