Dam, Stuhltrager Exhibitions: ALL MESSED WITH NOWHERE TO GO, JUMBLE, PERSONA, EVERYONE!

“I do not work to reveal the limitations of art but to speak about the painful, beautiful complexities of being alive.”
– W. POWHIDA

“Persona” (2004), represents six aspects of my identity, egotistical artist, thoughtful critic, cynical painter, subdued teacher, intense drunk and fawning lover. Through a maniac, comical montage, I constructed a meta-character out of the six aspects. Speaking as one person and fracturing into selves, the characters play out contradictory impulses, thoughts, and emotions. The subject is revealed as a series of overlapping parts, and not a static representation. The representations are all part of my life, and I believe art needs to reveal everything, not just what is beautiful or appropriate.

My work does not have clear trajectory, past or present. I am continually in the same process of expanding my own definitions of what constitutes art. At the same time, I no longer feel compelled to deny painting as a valid form of expression because of its’ formal limitations. It remains a vital, personal space for me to work, yet I will not stay in its’ safely defined borders. I can’t resist the possibilities of the new and unfamiliar.
– W. Powhida