Openings: “Suggestivism” @ GCAC

Last night, we attended the opening for Suggestivism, curated by Nathan Spoor, at Grand Central Art Center. This ambitious group show of over 50 different works boasts an impressive lineup of artists including Ron English, Todd Schorr and Sandow Birk. The exhibition reads like a collection of loose narratives, and the experience of each piece is like walking into the middle of a story, allowing the imagination to dictate the beginning and end. The artwork is meticulously rendered with an ambiguous, open-ended suggestion, allowing the viewer to construct his or her own interpretation of the story it tells. Some, such as Elizabeth McGrath’s two-headed sheep sculpture, tell a story within a story, with tiny figures incased in the body of the creature.

The artists in the exhibition, like the turn of the century art movement from which it borrows its name, are stylistically diverse and display a subtle, poetic and intellectually based style of art. Their illustrative style of anti-dogmatic and anti-academic art challenges artistic conventions of both past and present. Some of them contain fantastic elements, or draw their icons from familiar images of fairy tale, pop culture, history and mythology. The artists often use these symbols to create tense or unusual situations, activating the imagination and challenging common preconceived notions and the mediocrity of everyday life. The exhibition runs through April 17th, with a companion book expected to be released next month.

More opening photos after the jump…