Fantastic Stranger

"Life is full of unexpected strangers! When you meet people for the first time they’re strangers. Then they become friends. It’s nice artwork.” — Aaron Kleeblatt, featured artist 

Throughout history, portraiture has been a tool to record people. With portraits, artist make friends out of strangers, attempting to capture their inner workings. Fantastic Stranger, a group exhibition guest curated by Summertime, explores the yearning for intimacy through portraiture. The subject in Kleblatt’s Fred stares squarely out at the viewer. One can’t help but lock eyes with Wilson’s bear in blue glasses. All forty teeth in Wilson’s Hot Chili Lips are publically on display, the absence of a nose and mouth force us to conjure a fully realized likeness in our minds. And yet, the struggle for connection in the works of Fantastic Stranger is omnipresent. Features are blurred and erased, gazes and faces turn away. There is fragmentation and disjointedness. In looking at these works we are confronted with our world’s current predicament: we so desperately want to feel connected, yet something so clearly stands in our way. 

Fantastic Stranger features works by Guy Conners, Daniel Green, Vincent Jackson, Aaron Kleeblatt, Alysha Kostelny, Lawrence M, Mark Williams and Jean Wilson. The exhibition runs from August 3rd through August 31st, 2020. A special thanks to the Curatorial Committee at Arts of Life (Aaron Kleeblatt and Aria Carter), Creativity Explored and ECF for their participation in this exhibition.