“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.” -Jack London, The Call of the Wild
When was a time you were truly alive? A moment of total release when the petty cares of daily life fell away, leaving only the unbridled expanse of living – can you recall such a time? We spend so much of our time embroiled in the minutia of every day that it can be easy to forget the simple joy of being alive. Time slips away from us no matter what we do with it – perhaps this is reason enough to find those moments of simply living.
Gregg Louis spoke to us about his exhibition, No Empty Sky, on view until January 13 at Nohra Haime Gallery. The title of the show comes from a segment on 60 Minutes about the James Webb Telescope during which a scientist explained that in fact there is no such thing as empty sky, even though we may look up and see only darkness. To hear about this show and more, listen to the complete interview.
Oidie Kuijpers joined us to discuss his recent exhibition, Estate Sale, which was on view at D.D.D.D Gallery in New York. The show was comprised of a year’s worth of paintings, some of which are from images taken in Upstate New York. As the show drew closer, Kuijpers was driving around the state quite a bit and often saw signs for estate sales. Those words began bouncing around in his head as he considered the concept of an estate sale as the summation of a life represented by domestic objects. To learn more, listen to the complete interview.
Outings
Join me at the Circle Museum, a sculpture park located in Austerlitz, New York
A few words to keep in your pocket
Will you share with our community a time when you felt the unfettered joy of living?
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Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android, please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews is here.
More books to read
Ours is a community of readers. Tell us what books you’re into these days by adding your titles to our reading list here. Praxis user Marcia Annenberg is reading Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Spectre of Inverted Totalitarianism by Sheldon S. Wolin.
The Recharge New Surrealist Prize, a $7,000 grant, is dedicated to painters actively engaged in the New Surrealist Style and residing in the United States and/or U.S. Territories. To learn more about this award or to apply, visit the website. Deadline is January 31.
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis Center for Aesthetics and is currently faculty at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He has written six books for artists, most recently Making it in the Art World. He also has a new book coming out in the Spring of 2024, The Problems in the Art World: An Artist’s A-Z Action Guide, which is available for preorder.