Molly Bildgemutt

A stunning group exhibition, Inside Ed was one of Broadway Galley’s highlights of the year. Featuring an exciting group of extraordinary international artists, and curated by the visionary Tchera Niyego, Inside Ed included D. Chaim Smith, Christopher Gordon, Ugur Kunst, Marie-Jose Vielot, Anna VanMatre, and Ilana Dayan Zadik.

Resonating with an unmatched spiritual force, Smith’s visionary Kabalistic and alchemical pen and ink on paper images combine both text and geometric design, demonstrating the artist’s obsessive attention to detail. Also working on paper, Gordon creates lovely multimedia collages, such as It Could Happen To You, a compelling, but ambiguous, and dream-like image. Depicting a whale hovering gracefully in a field of aquamarine, while a small silhouetted figure skis on an icy slope below, the disjunctions of this carefully constructed composition bring to mind the Dada and Surrealist collages of the 20s and 30s. Another artist working on paper, VanMatre recognizes the medium’s potential: she rolls, tears, and folds it to maximize its natural qualities. In the work, Red Sea from Open, a poetic image depicting the open ocean, she explores the unification of the sea with the sky in perhaps the most expansive of all her nature-based themes. By focusing on the lack of boundaries between water and air and their endless upward and downward reach, the viewer is asked to reconsider all self-constructed barriers. Another artist who references the seaside in his work, Vielot’s approach is subtle and delicate, though nonetheless highly dynamic. Employing seashells as her media, she constructs carefully designed compositions, She says of her innovative process, “When working, ideas may ebb and flow much like the tide. The process can be tiring; however, as I watch my pieces come to life the process becomes effortless.”

In contrast, Kunst creates bold and powerful sculptural statements that demonstrate the artist’s excavation of secret memories and hidden stories. His monumental sculptural installation Things We Cannot Say, is composed of a life-sized tongue imprisoned in a cage. Such imagery evokes not only the secrets of shame some of us carry through our daily lives, but also it projects a political tone, reminding us of the horrors of Guantanamo Bay, a place where human beings’ basic right to the freedom of speech has been silenced. Last but not least is the inventive work of Zadik. Though she considers herself a “realist,” her Flowers series also nods to Surrealism in their exaggerated scale and fantastical palette.

All in all, Inside ED demonstrates Niyego’s overarching vision that nature can provide humans with a space of reverie and contemplation, as well as being a source of peace and spiritual motivation to “do the right thing.”