A mirage is a cruel trick of perception—a shimmering promise of relief that dissipates upon approach, revealing not an oasis, but a barren expanse. Mirage of Water explores this futile illusion of everyday life, where reality does not conform to expectation, and reason does not yield clarity. The works in this exhibition stage a confrontation between the rational mind and the irrational world, between what is seen and what is real, evoking a landscape where meaning slips through our grasp like water in the desert.
The absurdity of life lies in this confrontation—the realization that despite our search for structure, order, and causality, existence remains indifferent, chaotic, and beyond our control. Cayetano S. D. Santamaria’s Serenade in a Mental Wasteland delves into the repetitive and obsessive thoughts that croak through the mind, blurring the lines between creativity and burden, lucidity and madness. His silent hallucinatory imagery reflects the death of rational thought, replaced by cyclical patterns that entrap and liberate in equal measure. Danny Leyland’s quiet yet disquieting scene in Downward Dog set against layered backdrops of contrasting colors that evoke a sense of unsettleness. Blurred faces and muted tones amplify the underlying tension, confronting hidden hierarchies lurking beneath everyday life. Shane Berkery’s Janus navigates the liminal space between internal and external realities, where memory acts as a doorway to alternate worlds. By invoking Roman mythology, Shane challenges perceptions of time and identity, urging viewers to confront the paradoxes that shape their narratives. Edward Jones’s Do be there, 3000 in winter reimagines landscapes as psychological spaces, using dark evocative palettes that reflect memory’s elusive grip. His shifting terrains mock humanity’s futile attempt to tame nature, laying bare the absurdity of imposing meaning on the wild and unpredictable. Julius Killerby’s figure in veil in Untitled I embodies anonymity and elusiveness, offering a poignant meditation on the human condition through fragmented identities and existential ambiguity. His figures exist in states of flux, reflecting the absurdity of a world constantly in motion yet perpetually uncertain. Julian Lombardi’s biomorphic abstractions weave surrealism with psychosocial awareness, exploring the fluidity of agency, identity, and emotion. His protean forms navigate the uncanny dreamscapes of the subconscious, revealing our nuanced relationships with a complicated present.
Rebelling against the absurd becomes an act of defiance, a refusal to surrender to the weight of the vacuum. In confronting the irrational, these works do not seek resolution but instead revel in ambiguity. This exhibition invites the viewer to examine how the six artists engage with the absurdity of contemporary existence and psychological landscapes through painting’s tactile immediacy and symbolic depth.
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