Surge is an exhibition that brings together some of the most interesting artists from diverse areas of the world. The title refers to movement, as in the “sea surged to shore.” But surge can also refer to a sudden charge of electricity. Both of these definitions are apt in that Surge is a collective energy created by
the individual exhibiting artists whose works are imbued with power, force and sometimes a wild abandon that situates them on the forefront of artistic practice both in their individual countries and in the international arena.

Some artists, like Katja Loher and Przemo Wojciechowski, work in video and create elaborate installations in which sound and image seamlessly converge architectonically. For Surge, these two artists will produce site-specific works that directly engage their surroundings both physically as well as thematically. Also working environmentally are Karin Suter, Riiko Sakkinen and Alejandro Diaz. Karin Suter constructs sublime wall paintings; and for the exhibition she will create a mural-size piece that will incorporate research from her current artist residency in Beijing. Similarly working in large scale but utilizing individual works-on-paper, wall drawing and text is Riiko Sakkinen. Sakkinen is a Finn based in Spain, and his transnational condition is underscored in his mixing of a myriad of imagery from low and high culture that is culled from many sources including Spanish, Finnish, English, Polish, German, Japanese and Arabic. His contribution to Surge will consist of numerous small drawings that will be mounted against a polychromatic background and layered with his personal cartoon imagery; yet the textual elements that accompany his iconography will be mainly in Chinese. Alejandro Diaz, on the other hand, creates another form of signage altogether that is self-referential and ironic to the degree that it undermines all form of decorum...... more