Volume Up: Artists Responding to Music and Sound

Exhibition Dates: june 20 - july 15, 2023

Reception: thursday, june 22, 5PM - 8pm

The Painting Center is pleased to present Volume Up: Artists Responding to Music and Sound curated by Monica King. For many, art is seen as a wholly visual practice, inexplicably tied to the presentation of ideas in a manner that engages the optical nature of how we experience life—our literal “seeing” of the world. While artistic practice is often physically grounded in vision, much of what is “seen” in art stems from experiences linked to our other profoundly innate senses.

Do we experience texture in a painted or collaged surface with our eyes, or with the realization of how it likely felt to the artist as they worked the surface or what we think (or know) the material would feel like in our own hands? Likewise, when describing the forms of a painting or drawing, criticism often leaves the ocular realm by describing the work as calm or angry; ephemeral or violent; flowing or disjointed; empty or frenetic—all dichotomies that strongly exist in the auditory realm. These critical reactions do not emerge from what an artist has provided the viewer in a visual sense, but rather evoke an entire language that exists within the work—a multilayered arrangement instinctive to the artist, combining sight, sound, touch, and beyond.

Perhaps it is the unavoidable stratification of the senses bombarding an artist in their studio as they work which consciously or subconsciously manifests within the work in this way. How do artists define their relationship to sound or audio in the studio and does this potentially make the interpretation of their works unwittingly require a multitude of senses as well? This is not a new area of inquiry by any means. Numerous artists, as well as this curator, continue to respond strongly to the groundbreaking 1961 discourse by John Cage, so aptly named Silence. A range of vibrant artists have explored the intersections of sound, music, and silence as it interrupts our often-dominant visual tendencies in contemporary art. Notable examples include Laurie Anderson, Sanford Biggers, Janet Cardiff, Marcel Duchamp, Carsten Nicolai, and Bridget Riley, among others.

The exhibition, Volume Up: Artists Responding to Music and Sound features contemporary artists, in all media, who find themselves impacted by or intrigued by audio and sound within the studio or within the larger context of their work. Whether deliberately or subliminally allowing acoustic exploration to impact their process of making. Perhaps it appears in the final work in an obvious way, or in a manner which cannot be fully discerned without a deeper dive into artist intention or our own openness to fully experiencing a work through all our senses.

Artists include: Beth Adams, Roberta Aylward, Shannon Blanton, Dawn Boyer, Lauren E. Cassidy, Sandra Cavanagh, Raúl de la Torre, Tommaso Fattovich, Tom Flanagan, Simona Frillici, Mike Glier, Ellen Gordon, Linda Gritta, Monroe Hodder, James Horner, Hannah Jones, Barry Katz, Pamela Keravuori, Jill Kirschen, Tyler Kline, Sam Koren, Carole P. Kunstadt, Nikki Lindt, Susan Luss, Michela Martello, Ana Martinez Orizondo, Elizabeth Mead, Sharilyn Neidhardt, Victoria Palermo, Erin Parsch, Theresa Passarello, Dean Radinovsky, Ryder Ritz, Christine Romanell, Sara Sandler, Tina Scepanovic, Stefanie Schulte, John Sousa, Robert Straight, Tricia Lynn Townes, Cedric van Eenoo, Mira Vitarello, Susan Walsh, Doug Waterfield and Douglas Witmer.