Gallery Arcturus
a sanctuary for seeing

What is art for?

Enter, deborah harris

Much of art is about expressing the artist’s moods, opinions and interpretations, exploring what it means to be human from the artist’s personal point of view. This form of art has arisen in parallel with the development of psychology and is reflected in the current genre of art criticism and art history. It provides viewers with an opportunity to recognize their own point of view or see another’s.

Is there another artistic perspective which looks into the present moment of experience as an unknown to be explored, free from past associations? Can the primary components of experience—sensations and feelings—be penetrated directly without the filter of previous encounters? We invite the possibility that artists may look in order to see, with no other motive than inquiry into what is.

How is this invitation made manifest in the gallery?

On Lookers, Scott Griffin

In holding a question we are able to nurture an attitude of inquiry. This attitude has a gesture, a posture, a spaciousness which awakens perception. Each body of work that is presented in the gallery is a response to a question or theme, often inspired by the work which has preceded it. The work is not expected to answer, but rather to make visible the artist’s attempt to penetrate the unknown.

We understand that few are able to work in this way all the time, but in each artist’s search of the personal, there are moments of discovery which transcend. We collect and display these works for both artists and viewers to see what is unique in each piece and what we recognize that they share.

We also host artist workshops where work is created in the gallery over a period of days, inquiring into an agreed upon ‘something’. The work is then hung in the space as an exhibit and an invitation is sent out.

We are learning through experience the potency of what is possible when we suspend our assumptions and enter into the surprise of the unknown. We invite artists and viewers of art to meet us here.

I Recognize You, E.J. Gold

Gallery Arcturus is dedicated to exploring the nature and necessity of visual art in human endeavour. In our view art is the attempt to perceive and communicate what is seen.