ZIGMUNDS PRIEDE & JAMES EHLERS

MALLIN GALLERY – ZIGMUNDS PRIEDE Now in his 80’s, Priede is reflecting upon his pending mortality and reviewing his life. Memento Mori is a series of autobiographical narratives about his life discovering and preserving his Latvian identity within Modern Day American Culture through visual expression. While his work can be seen in numerous museums and collections he has always been driven by ideas and expression, not commercial success. As he approaches the end of his life, it is even more important for him to share his work with audiences in meaningful ways that promote connection and civil discourse secondarily to profit.

CHARNO GALLERY – JAMES EHLERS learns about how the universe is crumbling and then see breaking news about Kylie Jenner eating at a pizza shop. Ehlers is given reminders of what makes him less of a person in the material objects he doesn’t possess. He sees attention as the great opiate of a culture. He can find links to five to ten reasons why anything happens. As Ehlers takes in this information, he knows that he is being watched. Growing up in a Christian environment, it used to be God that watched, now it is the National Security Agency. Ehlers sees us complaining about the way things are as we simultaneously enable it. His work is a reaction to the consequences of the internet and technology. Information he is exposed to makes marks on his psyche that result in words or pictures within his journal that marinate for weeks or months. Ehlers decontextualizes and reconstructs these ideas in a collage of pessimistic observations. The subjects become visualizations of fear and apathy; a retort to an alarmist media and reactionary culture