“First Look” Preview: Thursday, February 5th, 5-7 p.m.

“First Friday” Exhibition Opening: Friday, February 6th, 5-8 p.m.

Project Statement

What the artists of Presently share in common is a process focused in extemporaneous creation built up over an extended period of time rather than executing a preconceived plan. They all create from a place deep within which is always new.

The state of not knowing becomes one of the art materials that motivates actions. One thing flows from another, one layer or cut is an end while simultaneously providing the start of a new possibility. Intuitively, a complex image constellates where all movement happens all at once. Presently it is happening. Illusion of space and time within the work speaks about the illusory and flexible nature of time and space in life. All work is so-called time consuming. Yet, time can’t be consumed. Only as thought, it can.

While much contemporary artwork is in conversation with or references the work of other artists, styles, or genres, these artists prioritize the process itself which is the meaning of the work in terms of its implications and its effects on a viewer’s consciousness. The merging of the limited with the unlimited: limited matter with the unlimited mind.

Perhaps what visually unites this group of artists most is working in fields, rather than depicting objects. When not working in a self-centered way, it’s possible to open the door to something greater and unlimited. The space of the mind is boundless.

The work of the Presently artists invite the viewer to take the journey and perceive “what is” presented through a visual manifestation. It takes creating without conditioning, and also viewing without conditioning to arrive at a more undivided, holistic position. When seeing/feeling the interrelatedness of all, the undividedness in “what is”, real perception may emerge. As Krishnamurti says, “There can be perception only when it is not changed by thought. When there is no interference of the movement of thought, there is perception.”

The Presently artists, Chris Arabadijs, Nelleke Beltjens, Reed Danziger, Thomas Kemper, and Sarah Walker exhibit these contemplations through diverse and complex working practices. Time, space, and consciousness, whereby time and space (space as we know it) are of the activity of the brain and consciousness is the foundation of all that exists.

About the Artists

Chris Arabadjis was born in Syracuse, NY. Prior to earning an MFA from Pratt Institute, he worked as a software engineer in southern California and then studied theoretical nuclear physics at UMass Amherst. He has taught visual art at William Paterson university and visual math at Pratt Institute. Arabadjis’ work has been exhibited in and around New York City for decades, as well as in Milwaukee, and the greater metropolitan areas of Boston and San Francisco. His work has been written about in SciArt Initiative’s Colloquium series, Steven Baris’ Expanded Diagram blog, and John O’Connor’s One River School essay and follow-up interview. His drawings have appeared on the covers of Willa Carroll’s Nerve Chorus, Timothy Liu’s Don’t Go Back to Sleep, and the literary anthologies Emanations 7: Chorus Pleiades edited by Carter Kaplan and Devouring the Green: Fear of a Human Planet edited by Sam Witt. He lives and works in New York City and Bearsville, NY with his husband and three cats.

Nelleke Beltjens, born in the Netherlands, graduated from the Academy of Art in Tillburg, obtained an MA.in Sculpture from the Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, and an MFA in Art Studio from the University of California, Davis. She has shown her work at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium, the Museum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Germany, and at BACC in Bangkok, Thailand. She had numerous solo and group shows in the US and Europe and is represented by Gallery r8m in Cologne, Germany. Awarded residences include VCCA, VSC, Kala Art Institute, MacDowell, Ucross Foundation, CCA Andratx, Yaddo, Jentel, Vashon Artist Residency, and Playa. She was twice awarded the Bassisstipendium, Art Grant Award, by Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam and a travel grant by the Mondrian Fund. Collections include the Achenbach Foundation. Beltjens taught at MSU, Bozeman, MT and CSU, CA. She lives and works where she gets the opportunity to do so.

Reed Danziger received a BFA from the University of California Santa Cruz and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited at McKenzie Fine Art, Hosfelt Gallery, Michael Kohn Gallery, Galerie Barbara Seiler, Robischon Gallery, Sonoma State University, Museum of Fine Arts Tallahassee, Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, Aurobora Press, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Mosseri-Marlio Gallery, Crocker Art Museum, Mills College Art Museum, Western Washington University, Apex Art, and the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts. She has attended residences at Ucross Foundations, The Headlands Center for the Arts, and The Golden Foundation. Public collections include the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Ulrich Museum, and the Achenbach Foundation. Selected bibliography: Art Practical, Los Angeles Times, The New York Sun, SquareCylinder, Harper’s Magazine, Artcritical, Art & Antiques. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area.

Thomas Kemper, born in Germany, attended the Fachoberschule für Gestaltung in Münster and studied painting at the Fachhochschule für Kunst und Design in Cologne. He received the Jakob Eschweiler Foundation’s award, two project scholarships from the MKW, NRW and a working scholarship from the Kunstfonds Foundation. Public collections: Kolumba-Museum, Cologne, Edith-Stein-Haus, Michaelsberg, artothek (Museen Cologne), apoBank, Heilbronn. Kunstsammlung Viehbrockhaus, Harsefeld. Works have been exhibited: Kolumba-Museum, Cologne, Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, artothek (Museen Cologne), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Kunstverein Langenhagen, Verein für aktuelle Kunst, Oberhausen, Galerie Ulf Larsson, Cologne, Galerie Carla Reul, Bonn, Galerie zone B, Berlin, Galerie zone E, Essen, Galerie r8m, Cologne, White Box Gallery, Philadelphia, White Box Gallery, New York, Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, Galerie Michael Schneider, Bonn. He lives and works in Cologne.

Sarah Walker received a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Walker has attended the MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, and the American Academy in Rome. She was awarded a Joan Mitchell Fellowship, a Rappaport Foundation Scholarship, a NYFA Fellowship in Painting and is a National Academy of Art and Design Academician. Sarah’s work has been exhibited at: Pierogi Gallery, Gregory Lind Gallery, DC Moore, McKenzie Fine Art, The Rose Museum, The Frist Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Crocker Museum and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Collections include MoMA, The Nasher Museum, Neuberger Museum, the DeCordova Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, and National Academy of Art and Design. Exhibitions reviewed in: Art in America, Art Critical, The New Criterion, New York Magazine, The Boston Globe, and The San Francisco Chronicle. She lives and works in New York City.