“Put simply, there seems to be a renewed urgency around the idea that we can’t trust market forces to nurture art and artists, and that, consequently, it is absolutely imperative—once again—to find other outlets for, and means of supporting, culture.”—Matthew Higgs, Artforum, December 2006

MAD COW, Absurdity and Anxiety in Contemporary Culture is the inaugural exhibition at NURTUREart Gallery’s new space at 910 Grand Street in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

Truth being stranger than fiction, the outbreak and ensuing panic of a deadly madness epidemic spread by farm animals provides an apt theater of the absurd metaphor for our times. MAD COW, Absurdity and Anxiety in Contemporary Culture is guest-curated by Joelle Jensen, as part of the NURTUREart Emerging Curators’ Program. The artists in this exhibition, working in a variety of media, juxtapose animal and human nature to address psychological and social issues. These juxtapositions reveal contemporary fears and desires through articulation of the irrational. Each artist examines both the wild and the tame aspects of human experience, confronting the viewer with the duality that may be found in each of us.

Valerie Lamontagne takes the challenge of understanding contemporary anxiety most literally as she assumes the role of the “Advice Bunny” in an interactive online chat; Lamontagne advises the audience on a variety of subjects including relationships, careers and spiritual needs.

Corinna Schnitt accentuates the absurd through examination of the domestic. Schnitt’s video, Once Upon A Time contrasts domestic trappings with the primal nature of the animal world. The resulting video is both humorous and sad as the creatures seize their domestic container by tearing apart houseplants, urinating on accessories and drinking out of the fish bowl.

Both Kate Clark and Katherine McDowell, use hybrids to reveal an underlying violence beneath the guise of control. Clark’s awe-inspiring sculptures reveal a brutality both formally and conceptually while evoking relationships to nature in terms of the sublime. McDowell’s drawings recall a somewhat youthful interpretation of evolution gone awry. Both artists examine assumptions we have about the “wild” by mixing human and animal features.

Christopher Reiger and Purdy Eaton also inspire contemplation about evolution, creating works that evoke Darwin and the survival of the fittest. Reiger’s claustrophobic compositions formally exaggerate an anxiety about the effects civilization is having on the natural world. Eaton’s series of paintings, The Beagle is Sinking, are based on figures from old master’s paintings. With a Darwinian reversal, she creates commentary about the roots of civilized society with humorous juxtapositions.

Using different means, three artists in the exhibition portray confrontation. Deborah Simon creates captivating paintings of wild animals mingling with animated skeletal remains in confrontational postures. Justin Pollmann constructs surreal transfer-based paintings in which suspicious crossbreeds or mythical creatures encounter one another, often meeting a bitter end. Jason Sleurs presents a confrontation between mismatched companions in his painting, highlighting the paradoxical structure of relationships where one’s “nature” may work against his or her ability to “nurture.”

Joelle Jensen, MAD COW guest curator, is an artist, arts- administrator, writer and curator. She recently completed both her MA in Contemporary Art Theory and Criticism, and her MFA in Visual Art at Purchase College, State University of New York.