In this third “Twenty by Sixteen Biennial,” the visual adventure continues. With only the one constraint – size—each of the 35 artists in the show is free to invent, explore, befuddle, dazzle, bemuse, challenge, celebrate. Represented by two works each, artists get a chance to show what they do best twice: with imagery, touch, color, figuration, abstraction, hybridity, absurdity, profundity, or none of the above. If no two artists look alike, it is because no two artists ARE alike. What is particular to one is foreign to another; what is anathema to one is central to another. What the artists in this Biennial share is integrity. And at the helm of each practice is sincerity, integrity’s first cousin. Thus do the works in this show bop, amble, strut, juxtapose, cruise, clash, propose and cuddle…for all they’re worth. Pick your favorite. Question its presence. Revel in pictorial uniqueness. Consider the language each work speaks. Consider the dialects, the slang, the asides, never forgetting that each work bears the stamp of its maker. Not “Made in America.” Rather, made by a human, for the craziest reasons: necessity and joy.
-Geoffrey Young