Composed of work from Wake Forest University’s Art Collection, this exhibition focuses on Human Connection portrayed through a series of works that includes photographs, paintings and charcoal drawings. Each work portrays the human experience of connection or lack of connection, in its own way. The evocation of each work is independent and portrays the human experience in its own way. Through dilapidated buildings, abstract landscapes, and portrayal of sports, the exhibition highlights physical, emotional and intellectual connections. Images in this show depict physical closeness, isolation, as well as remnants of human presence.
This show highlights the importance and prevalence of the human connection in the modern world. Given the current events of 2020, the notion of human connection, or lack thereof, has never felt more palpable. Each work presented highlights a specific notion of the human experience of loneliness, relationships and the hardships of life. The works compiled present a range of emotions and human experiences of life. From abandoned schools presented in Courtyard, Former Cass Tech HS, photographed by Andrew Moore, to Gladys Nilsson’s joyous image A Course Line, to Darell Koons nostalgic Sunday Morning, the show displays the trials and circumstances of human life.
Do-Ho Suh creates a busy image by incorporating miniscule portraits to create a larger, nondescript compilation of photos (Who Am We?). The portraits, in turn, lose their individuality by being part of a massive grouping. Similar to Suh’s sense of ambiguity of individual portraits, Bill Jacobson portrays an individual’s side-profile in a blurred and obscure form in Song of Sentient Beings. This depiction lends itself to curiosity of the mystery and story behind the individual depicted. In a more distinct and precise illustration, Robert Vickrey sketches a Head of a Clown in sanguine ink, demonstrating the laborious aspects of life through the weathered wrinkles on the Clown’s profile. The question of life and circumstance is brought to the forefront in Vickrey’s sketch, as well as Odd Nerdrum’s Baby. His depiction evokes loneliness by way of an isolated infant surrounded by a cloud of dark charcoal. All twelve images presented in Human Connection will provide material surrounding the importance and conversation surrounding relationships between humans or lack thereof.
As a result of the ongoing global spread of COVID-19, this show aims to highlight the importance of human connection, as well as the presence of human connection in life. The viewer is invited to contemplate personal experiences of human connection, in addition to contemplating the experiences of the work’s subjects. The viewer is invited to ponder how human connection plays a role in recent society.
Milton Avery, American (1885-1965)
Milton Avery portrays a figure reading the “Morning News” in brash, simple brushstrokes. Morning News subscribes to Avery’s typical depictions of “home and hearth” that allow for viewers to relate in a personal way. Avery is described as a painter of the familiar, and of personal relationships to that of his friends and family. Morning News, painted in Avery’s second phase of artistry, is representative of nostalgia for the simple things in life.
Milton describes his paintings as such: “I try to construct a picture in which shapes, spaces, colors, form a set of unique relationships, independent of any subject matter.”
© Milton Avery Trust/Artists Right Society (ARS), New York
Collier Schorr, American (b. 1963)
Collier Schorr photographs two wrestlers in action in Catch/Caught (A.C. & S.S.). The intense chiaroscuro of the image evokes drama and intense emotion of the wrestlers in action. The physical closeness of the wrestlers combined with their contented faces brings about a notion of nostalgia and calm solitude. The wrestlers are depicted so that the viewer contemplates whether the embrace is a competitive one or a compassionate one. The expressions of the wrestlers are delicate, as is the embrace. The connection between the wrestlers is difficult to decipher, however the physical touching allows for many interpretations.
Reproduced with permission of the artist.
Nathan Cabot Hale (b. 1925)
Nathan Cabot Hale utilizes his degree in Psychology and Morphology to present a sculpture that depicts processes of humankind. The physical closeness and repetition of the figures incorporated into the sculpture evokes the drama of human life. The figures are depicted with upward reaching hands, all attached to each other. The sculpture has an upward reaching motion. His works often depict and explore the cycle of life, growth and forming processes of human nature.
© Nathan Cabot Hale, courtesy Dr. Lisa Hale Rose. This piece was done in direct welding technique and is unique.
Andrew Moore, American (b. 1957)
Andrew Moore’s photograph entitled Courtyard displays the remnants of an abandoned school building. The viewer is able to see into the windows and is presented with a memory of the past identity of the building. Moore finds beauty in dilapidation and long-gone evidence of humanity by presenting this image as a work of art. The visible writing on chalkboards coupled with leftover books and desks evokes a sense of nostalgia yet leaves the viewer with unanswered questions. The image evokes enticing questions regarding the human presence presented in this photograph. Andrew Moore is said to be most interested in the narrative approaches of documentary photography and journalism to detail remnants of societies in transition.
© Andrew Moore, Courtesy Yancey Richardson Gallery.
Robert Vickrey, American (1926-2011)
Robert Vickrey creates a haunting image of a clown’s face through hyper realistic facial lines. The style of the face coupled with the starkly detailed body creates a dissonance of creative depiction that speaks to Vickrey’s thematics in his career. Vickrey’s work is said to “symbolize loneliness or hostility or simply the pains of growing up.” The sense of loneliness detected in Head of a Clown is portrayed through the isolated figure and blank background. The viewer can detect the “pains of growing” through the obvious life experience depicted in the realistic wrinkles on the Clown’s face.
copyright retained by the artist or artist representative
Bill Jacobson, American (b. 1955)
Jacobson’s Song of Sentient Beings invokes a sense of ambiguity and curiosity towards the identification of the figure presented. Portrayed as a blurred profile, the image speaks to the fading of a memory. His work is often understood in conjunction with the AIDS epidemic to which he relates his work to “the transitory nature of existence.” Similarly to many of his other works, Song of Sentient Beings incorporates the transitory aspect of human existence by blurring the outline of the figure’s profile and indistinctly displaying human presence.
copyright retained by the artist or artist representative
Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian (b. 1944)
Odd Nerdrum creates a mysterious image in The Baby. The viewer is confronted with an intense chiaroscuro shift surrounding the wrapped baby. Nerdrum combines black and white extremes to create a lonely figure. The questionable history and future of the baby begs the interest of their story. Where did the baby come from? Does the baby have kin? These thoughts are prominent when viewing The Baby. Odd Nerdrum has a history of presenting rawness of human experience with dark and stark contrasts in his works. These themes present a mysterious and sympathetic picture.
© 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/BONO, Oslo
Gitte Kröncke, Danish
Gitte Kröncke portrays Manhattan’s essence as a busy and overwhelming city with erratic and loose paint strokes. The buildings are detailed in an overlapping manner with interconnected lines and stacked shapes. She draws out the rushed and packed nature of the Manhattan buildings and creates the notion of human presence and the intense energy of NYC through the use of yellow to portray light and life.
Copyright retained by artist or artist representative.
Gladys Nilsson, American (b. 1940)
Gladys Nilsson creates a fluid and colorful image that incorporates a highly stylized depiction of figures. The interwoven arms and legs of the figures create what seems like a neverending connection. Broken into two registers, the piece is filled with interaction and depictions of human relationships. The space of the painting is filled to the brim with figures, all interwoven and interacting with one another. The wide range of color variations speaks to Nilssons typical paint use in her works. A Course Line invokes a sense of human connection on an obvious plane, but speaks to a sense of community through a packed composition and gentle color variations.
Copyright held by the artist and Jean Albano Gallery.
Jonas Wood, American (b. 1977)
From Jonas Wood’s work entitled Walton, the nostalgic appreciation of famous basketball player Bill Walton relates to the current appreciation and nostalgia of team sports. Wood incorporates his own appreciation of sports, history and references to famous icons through his work. Often depicting famous sports icons in motion or with actively emotive expressions. Combining basic shapes and colors to create an image of a basketball card, the viewer understands Walton’s appreciation of sports icons. Bill Walton is depicted in action and relation with two other basketball players on the court. The image relates back to a time of normality in society, when sports games were occurring pre-pandemic.
Reproduced with permission of the artist.
Darrell Koons, American (1924-2016)
As a realist, Koons depicts an abandoned building with nostalgia and a sense of loneliness. The viewer can see the remnants of a human presence, but the darkness of the windows and the starkness of the trees project a lack of life. Koons uses basic shapes and elongated lines to draw out the simplicity of the desolated building and landscape behind it. With a degree in Art Education, one can appreciate his use of simplicity of shapes and patterns to present such a profound meaning of isolation.
© Darell Koons, courtesy of the artist
Do-Ho Suh, Korean (b. 1962)
Who Am We incorporates miniscule yearbook portraits of individual students into one melange. Upon close examination of the piece, the individual students' visages are readily visible. However, from further lengths, the individuality of students disappears into one large threaded-looking fabric. The indistinguishable faces of the students speaks to the dissolution of the personal identity into a larger group dynamic. The small portraits lose their individuality and form a collective whole, creating a notion of interconnectedness of individuals on a larger scale.
Reproduced with permission of the artist.
Human Connection was curated by Caroline Miller ('21).