Two Distinct Views – The Individual and The Collective

New artwork by Marlies Ihmels and David N. Ebner

Throughout art history, artists have expressed their feelings, thoughts and visions through emphasizing the individual and the collective view in their artwork. We as individuals have the choice of living our individuality or submitting to the collective to become a part of something larger. In this exhibition we have the opportunity to visualize the individual and the collective from a philosophical, aesthetical and practical point of view without passing judgment.

This exhibition features new figurative paintings and drawings by Marlies Ihmels. The large painting “Children of the Rising Sea”, 48 x 66 inches embraces the philosophical and aesthetical aspects of the collective. Created from the artist’s imagination, the painting bears no reference to any individual person known to the artist, nor any reference materials or artworks from art history. In this work the artist’s intuition and feeling merged with the artist’s internalized knowledge of form. This creation embodies a pure vision of the collective as individual figures merge to form one mass within their given environment, as in a flock of birds or school of fish. The drawings on the other hand stress the individual, they are studies from life. These works are representations of single individuals expressing qualities unique to their own character.

In David N. Ebner’s sculptural furniture the individual and the collective play out in an aesthetic and practical way. In these works the main focus is an emphasis of incorporating various materials and their aesthetic function and use. Here different materials submit to a larger structure. A perfect example is David N. Ebner’s new bench named “Merging Inclination”. The artist has intuitively juxtaposed naturally twisted & hand carved wood. In addition the benches function was then taken to a new level of meaning by adding stone to the design. This bench serves as a collective work of art through its aesthetic design, its materials, and its function as a double bench and table. Other works by David N. Ebner stress the individual view as single objects of art through their aesthetic use of unique materials and their functional purpose.

Both artists are using these two distinct views in their own way to embody their art with meaning. While their visions are distinctly individual points of view, they are ultimately influenced by the collective subconscious, thus their art takes on the collective meaning of their particular time in history.

Exhibition from March 15 – May 3, 2008