Performance installation by Cilla Vee Movement Projects – performers Katherine Adamenko & Maria Pirone. & short performance around 7.30pm: concept by Diana Schmertz, performed by Claire Elizabeth Barratt.

This exhibition includes twelve paintings, fifteen photographs, and six sculptures. The ten artists represented are NATE ANSPAUGH, SUNIA BONEHAM, NATALIE GIUGNI, ANKI KING, SERGE J-F LEVY, JOHN MILISENDA, ALEXANDRA RUTSCH, JORDAN SCHRANZ, EFFIE SERLIS, and DIANA SCHMERTZ. The opening reception will be held Friday Nov. 3rd from 6 to 9pm. In addition, Haven Arts will be open the evening of Nov. 1 from 6 to 8pm for the running of The Bronx Cultural Trolley.

Penetrating Empathy is an exhibit based on Perfect 8, a publication dedicated to the de-objectification of people. It contains mostly visual work from various artists who through their artistic media, hope to encourage the growth of empathy in those who view their art.

Perfect, defined as “lacking nothing essential to the whole” (dictionary.com), combined with the number 8, which refers to an inadequate score (8 out of 10) in the conventional rating system of our culture, takes on a new meaning that conveys recognition of the beauty found in peoples’ imperfections. Perfect, also defined as “complete of its nature or kind” (dictionary.com), typically evokes the view that an individual can only be construed as perfect when all attributes of the whole person are acknowledged. To deconstruct the myth perpetrated in our society that people are objects and obtainable products, Perfect 8 engages viewers and readers on an empathetic level, attempting to induce curiosity, and ultimately the questioning of what it would be like to experience the feelings of another. These artists offer an alternative to the concept of a “Perfect 10” as one without faults, frailties, or weaknesses. Perfect 8 celebrates an unveiled humanity, one that embraces the beauty found in “faulty” qualities.