Participating artists: Danny Balgley, Miki Carmi, Patty Chang, Martha Colburn, Quentin Curry, Wei Dong, Richard Dupont, Alison Fox, Ashley Hope, Eunjung Hwang, Aaron Johnson, Yaron Leshem, Michelle Matson, Bruce Nauman, Shimon Okshteyn, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Heide Trepanier, Ruud van Empel.

Six Degrees of Separation addresses the correlations between spatial distances and interpersonal relationships, and examine how consumerism, the male gaze, and illusion can be formally and conceptually communicated through visual media. Just as this exhibition presents a contrast by displaying works of established artists alongside those who are on the verge of international recognition, it also weaves seemingly cacophonous artistic themes into an underlying vision of current contemporary artistic practice.

In an attempt to subvert the concept of the traditional “male gaze,” works by Danny Balgley, Wei Dong, Ashley Hope, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya challenge gender roles and politically enforced stereotypes in an attempt to reexamine the power of the male viewer versus that of the traditionally female or feminine subject. Continually exploring new “spaces” such as those produced by the aftereffects of industry’s impact on the landscape and the search for utopian spaces, Patty Chang, Quentin Curry, Alison Fox, and Heide Trepanier attempt to prove the existence of the “unreal” in their quests for, among other things, organic abstractions—both organized and controlled.

Incorporating psychedelia, pornography, biblical passages and old master paintings, Martha Colburn, Aaron Johnson, Michelle Matson, Bruce Nauman and Shimon Okshteyn comment on consumerism, politics, sexuality, and cultural memory. Their commentary is further aided by utilizing elements of cultural ephemera and images appropriated from art history.

Challenging what the viewer perceives to be “true,” Miki Carmi, Richard Dupont, Eunjung Hwang, Yaron Leshem, and Ruud van Empel explore, through both mathematical and stylistic means, real and imaged space, and create a disorientating and sometimes unbalanced sense of place.