A group exhibition featuring: DANIEL ZELLER, JIM TOROK, LYNN TALBOT, LES STONE, DAVID SHAPIRO, JONATHAN SCHIPPER, DAVID SCHER, MICHAEL SCHALL, JOHN O’CONNOR, RYAN MROZOWSKI, WILLIAM LAMSON, DARINA KARPOV, KIM JONES, ANDREAS GEHRKE, PETER GARFIELD, JANE FINE, JAMES ESBER, BRIAN DEWAN, KIRSTEN DEIRUP, HUGO CROSTHWAITE, DAWN CLEMENTS, NADJA BOURNONVILLE, JUSTIN AMRHEIN

All of the signs of the apocalypse—the chaotic events preceding the end of the world as foretold in religious texts—would seem to be upon us; wars, earthquakes, floods and natural disasters of all kinds, famine, impending asteroid impact…you name it. The website apocalypsesoon.com predicts the end days to arrive, well, soon. A drawing by David Scher, “The End Is Near In A Way So Repent, Somehow,” along with escalating gas and food prices, and dire predictions all around, inspired the title for this show but once we looked around we realized a wide variety of artists were already making work addressing this subject in one way or another. The works in this show range from those exhibiting the effects wrought on the environment and the effects of war on people everywhere, to those in which would-be sinners writhe in agony, or perhaps ecstasy, before the end. All manner of destructive and / or potentially destructive forces are at play and are examined both playfully and seriously. From David Scher’s tongue-in-cheek drawing and his sign reading, “My Utopia Hates Your Utopia,” and Jim Torok’s cartoon panel, “If I Just Believed In God”; to the self-destructive aspect of William Lamson’s video in which he attaches bananas to a mask covering his face, each banana embedded with a firecracker at the tip which he ultimately lights and explodes; to Les Stone’s almost theatrical looking, though chillingly real, photograph of the first food aid helicopter landing in a refugee camp on the border between Iraq and Turkey during the first Gulf War; and points in between. John O’Connor’s work on paper, “2036,” charts the potential destructive power of an asteroid that some predict will impact Earth in 2036. Imagery of chaos fills Darina Karpov and Kirsten Deirup’s works, and writhing sinners move across Hugo Crosthwaite’s seven-by-eight foot charcoal and graphite drawing. The cherubs with horns in Kim Jones’ untitled work on paper could resemble the cherub called Lucifer in the Old Testament; the one, they say, who will be judged most harshly during the revelation.