Artists: Devendra Banhart, Andrew Guenther, Brent Ridge, Dash Snow, Valaire van Slyck

In the social and cultural history of our so called “Western (Christian) Civilization”, the word “epiphany” was most often used to describe an intense religious experience. All those figures (mostly saints) in European paintings (14th through 18th centuries) with bright halos and blissful faces looking up to heaven were thought to have a more direct communication with God. In the more secular climate of the 21st century, the word “epiphany” has been used to denote an individual’s or artist’s frenetic aesthetic interaction with reality. It is the spirit of this kind of artistic revelation that “A Cloudy Day’s Epiphany” hopes to capture and unveil. The faces of beauty take on many forms, some of which the viewer might at first sight consider ugly. Only with time and sensitivity will a profound metamorphosis occur to change the viewer’s opinion. —Simon Cerigo, Curator