Visions of Elysium
Imagining the Reality of an Eternal Home
Curator: Jim Morphesis
November 11 – December 23, 2018
Opening reception: November 11, 2-5pm
The Inland Empire Museum of Art
1334 North Benson Avenue, Unit D, Upland, CA 91786
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In Homer’s Odyssey, the poet describes a place known as the Elysian Fields, a perfect setting, always bathed in sunlight and where the west wind blows gently every day. To this Greek paradise, righteous mortals, selected by the gods, where conveyed at the time of death. Here, in Elysium, those chosen would live a blessed and happy afterlife, pursuing pleasant endeavors through all eternity.
While Elysium, to this day, continues to represent an idealized location for our ultimate retirement, admission is not guaranteed and many of us ponder the fate that awaits us after we, “shuffle off this mortal coil.” For this exhibition, an exceptional group of eighteen artists of diverse disciplines were asked to consider the concept of an afterlife and challenged to visualize a place where one might experience the everlasting consequence of a corporeal existence. The participating artists have created works specifically for this exhibition, or have made selections from their existing artworks.
The works exhibited in, Visions of Elysium, rooted in personal desires and beliefs and realized through a number of different mediums, present worlds of ethereal beauty, poignant images of longing and hope, fanciful abstractions and landscapes both inviting and foreboding, and, on occasion, an offering created through an audacious sense of humor. Ultimately, Visions of Elysium: Imagining the Reality of an Eternal Home, is intended to present a variety of very personal and compelling artworks that suggest what may lie ahead for us all.
Participating Artists:
Stanley Baden, Fatemeh Burnes, Deena Capparelli, Woods Davy, David DiMichele, Todd Gray, Mark Steven Greenfield, Gilah Yelin Hirsch, Joanne Julian, Alex Kritselis, Constance Mallinson, Robin Mitchell, Marina Moevs, Jonathan Puls, Roxene Rockwell, Mark Dean Veca, Ruth Weisberg, and John Wu.
