“Right now a moment of time is passing by! We must become that moment.” Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

So Cezanne described his relationship on a rudimentary level with subject. All one has to do is look to the left, and look to the right – all things that are present can arouse and expand consciousness, and are `available’ for infinite possibilities of expression. The unassuming still life paintings of the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) are an obvious and profound example of the inheritance of Cezanne’s philosophy. This exhibition came to fruition with Morandi’s work in mind and encourages conversations surrounding various still life depictions and interpretations among different generations of artists.

The prime focus of Available is the place of the still life in art history as well as contemporary practice. The still life is fresh and radical. To note another quote from Cezanne, “Th e day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.” Morandi’s still lifes were a cheeky reaction to the prevailing regime of modernism. The idea of the metaphysical properties of the object as the focal point of artistic probing is central to the ideal of the still life. The term `still life’ is often blandly associated with a bowl of fruit on a table; here, the curators explore the enigma of the common object to its’ fullest conceptual extent – reinforcing how the still life became a liberation from the traditional. These artists defy traditional time and space relationships. Some use images of the everyday to transgress into the imaginary or something more radical, others use it to create their own reality – an available reality – and a response to a microscopic relationship with an object.

The exhibition includes works by Brian Belott, Richard Callner, Kevin Christy, Dawn Clements, Tim Davis, Anoka Faruquee, David Humphrey, Vera Iliatova, Dona Nelson, Kate Shepherd, Lynn Talbot, Wayne Thiebaud, Ben Woodward, Kevin Zucker and an anonymous contributor.