If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others? In Half Empty, absurd and incongruous depictions of Utopia and Dystopia are contrasted. The show draws its inspiration from Candide, and the moment in which the book’s namesake discovers that his mentor, Pangloss, “deceived me cruelly when he said all is for the best in the world.” From the allegorical to the abstract, the artists in this grouping use various approaches to satirize, embrace, or waiver between optimism and pessimism.

Akemi Maegawa Brent Birnbaum Brian Giniewski Johannes DeYoung JK Keller Madeline Stillwell Matt Tackett Natalie Westbrook Natalie Wood Tom Costa

curated by Irena Jurek