Housed by Half Gallery in Alphabet City, Innerdisciplinary is a fun three person exhibition with a vivid sense of variety that digs deep. As you are first walking in, your eye is drawn towards Rene Ricard‘s piece plaintively pleading, “please hold me the forgotten way.” The battered ship washed ashore along with the shadowy subject sobbing in the foreground conducts a downtrodden dialog with Ian Felice‘s “The Burning of America” and that dialog immediately speaks to you upon entry.
On the south wall of the gallery, Rebecca Hall also struck up an conversation of her own with Ricard’s “Nightcrawlers,” gathering her own audience to witness their exchange. The space eventually revealed itself to be an echo chamber of honest discourse and each artist had something dynamic to say.
Rene recites poignant poetry. Hall offers transformative rhetoric. Felice delivers striking vulnerability–and it is all moderated by a concise curation that flows appealingly despite the varying aesthetics.
The exhibition’s title, Innerdisciplinary, is a clever play on words that serves as a slick hook that pulls you into a marvelous melting-pot of paradigms. The show almost sets itself up like a thoughtful joke: “A poet, a musician and a filmmaker walk into a gallery…” Except, the impact of Innerdisciplinary is far from a laughing matter. This exhibition is a celebration of artists who dare to expand their horizons, push their boundaries and “embrace the lyricism in uncertainty.”
It is proof that some creative risks are worth taking even if you are not guaranteed to reap the rewards.
Innerdisciplinary is on display at Half Gallery (235 E 4th St New York, NY 10009) through December 13th. We suggest that you pay them a visit and tell them Quiet Lunch sent you!
Akeem is our founder. A writer, poet, curator and profuse sweater, he is responsible for the curatorial direction and overall voice of Quiet Lunch. The Bronx native has read at venues such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, KGB Bar, Lovecraft and SHAG–with works published in Palabra Luminosas and LiVE MAG13. He has also curated solo and group exhibitions at numerous galleries in Chelsea, Harlem, Bushwick and Lower Manhattan.