The Slipperiness of Realism

“Anything is possible” is written at the top of a painting by Sam Messer currently on view in “Edge Conditions,” a group exhibition of work by former visual arts fellows at the Fine Arts Work Center. The phrase appears on a sheet of paper arising from a typewriter. In an exhibition that features representational art, the phrase challenges the viewer to reconsider the visual possibilities inherent in artwork that claims to depict real things, such as the typewriter in Messer’s painting or the two figures sitting listlessly on a dock in a painting by Matt Bollinger, the show’s curator.

The show’s title is a term in urban design that describes the junction where contrasting elements meet. Bollinger relates the concept to his experience of walking from a parking lot to a dune shack and traversing asphalt, sand, and several distinct ecosystems.

“The works in this exhibition exist in edge conditions, junctions of contrasting elements, ideas, materials, and images,” he writes. “Some draw attention to the contrast between elements, leaving their seams visible… Others hide their joints under the illusion of continuity.”

Read the full article in The Provincetown Independent written by Abraham Storer here.