studioe

Timothy Siciliano
Bio/CV | website
EXHIBITIONS
Slouching Towards Possible Enlightenment
March 13 - April 10, 2021


Georgetown’s studio e gallery delivers a jolt to the solar plexus with the March 13 – April 10, 2021 exhibit of new work by Seattle artist Timothy Siciliano. “Slouching Towards Possible Enlightenment” invites us to enter a waking dream, or nightmare.  The work forces a reckoning with the transgressive aspects of our inner selves, those aspects we would rather turn away from but that nonetheless beckon us. Siciliano’s technical mastery and gorgeous palette ease us into the imagery. However, upon focusing, we find ourselves in the disturbances, unable to look away. This is the power of the work – at some point the question of “What is going on here?” becomes “How do I look at this work?”


While his earlier works addressed the AIDS crisis that decimated the specific population of gay men, this current work expresses the unconscious realms our entire population now inhabits. After four horrific years of social and political turmoil, we continue to suffer the effects of the COVID pandemic. As Siciliano explains, “I believe this new body of work is a visceral exploration of these past four years and particularly this past year. The displacement of norms. The praise of dishonesty. The beauty in cruelty. The rot of common decency. All of this has besmirched our newly imprisoned lives. 
The new work, 2018 - 2021, continues the exploration and evolution of the personal and political themes Siciliano has focused on throughout his career. The paintings draw us in, seduce us with their beauty and DayGlo drama, but we then reel backwards as we discern the specific assaultive images. As Siciliano reflects, “People love to watch horror movies, but they don’t want to look at horror paintings.” This work brilliantly reiterates Siciliano’s themes of disconnection, violation, isolation, and pain, while penetrating the false narrative of a neatly ordered and reasonable world.

--Jean Tarbox

FULL PRESS RELEASE


Available works