Alternative Art School 17.08.2022

“A kaleidoscope of gestures, visions, personal memories and abstract flourishes adorns this virtual gallery in this first ever group show of artists attending The Alternative Art School. As diverse as the experiences of this online community, this exhibition is an opportunity for our community to look across this digital space and see what each has been working on. Yes, as ever, the digital perhaps could be described as a facsimile of the real, but after two years of being in existence, the school has come to realize that this interpersonal exchange is merely one version of many forms of human connection and exchange.

This exhibition was organized by Danielle Schlunegger who has been an incredibly valuable and steadfast member of The Alternative Art School community. Like many at the school, her road to this exhibition has been syncopated by life concerns amidst a pandemic that seems to drag on with its emotional and pragmatic toll. If anything, the pandemic has brought the world briefly under one umbrella and this exhibition, regardless of form, is also an expression of that distance, trauma, sociality, and need to share.

The aesthetic dispositions range as much as ever as art does itself. Ranging from the abstract to the conceptual, from quilting to sculpture, from personal narrative to feminist semiotics the approaches are as diverse as can be. That is how it should be. What we see here is not a thorough thesis or a unified voice. Instead, what we see here are a constellation of artistic gestures that have been assembled in this virtual room, a self portrait if you will, that demonstrates the results of our evolving community.”

– Nato Thompson