Visual and Textual Form

We’re happy to announce the successful closing of Ari Glass' latest major solo exhibition, which showed this month in Life Gallery Studio. Under the title “Visual and Textual Form”, Seattle artist Ari Glass exhibited linocuts divided into five smaller thematic units. There are four imprints together with the final fifth, representing the culmination of all matrix in one imprint.

The gallery space received visitors, presenting them with the first part of the exhibition that begins the story of extinct civilizations. As artist Ari Glass emphasized - the point of the exhibition is not to romanticize some past times in order to critique the present and challenge modernity. Moreover, the visitor is offered insight into the connection between what used to be and what is today, past and present inevitably intertwined. The story continues in the second part of the gallery space.

Indeed, the foundation of the line-up is precisely the story - an interesting narrative told through a visual medium, but also through the textual elements below the linocuts. These are relatively short, often humorous, and interesting stories that mostly make visitors pause for a few minutes and think. The culmination, therefore, is not a setting that can be glanced over and forgotten after a few minutes.

The texts, handwritten by Ari Glass himself, represents the thoughts and words of the participants and the author. The written thought acts as an internal monologue of some of our contemporaries, and, as previously mentioned, it is about ancient civilizations and extinct tribes. This, at first glance, incompatibility of the textual and the visual is actually what makes this exhibition unique and answers the artist's question about what has changed and what has not."

Ari Glass pays attention to the structures and lines, resulting in extremely rich linocuts that, from a certain distance, resemble drawings. Undoubtedly, such thoughtful representation has certainly required a lot of effort, and the artist has managed to achieve narrative, expressiveness, and descriptiveness. The culmination of the groups offered visitors visually intriguing exhibits, as well as a glass of conversation filled with thoughts and ideas that complemented and “framed” the linocuts.