In/Flux: on influence, inspiration, transmission and transformation
Curated by Zahar Vaks in collaboration with Eden Pearlstein and Ayin Press. 

January 25th - February 23rd, 2020

Opens Saturday, January 25th , 6-9 pm

In/Flux Chapbook/Catalogue Launch 
February 16, 6-9 pm 

A unique chapbook/catalogue has been produced in conjunction with the gallery show that poetically reflects on the corresponding themes, works, and relationships at play and on display. The book is designed by Tom Haviv, written by Eden Pearlstein, and published by Ayin Press.

Tannaz Farsi
Yevgeniy Fiks
Fox Hysen
Helina Metaferia
Walter Price
Ralph Pugay
Molly Zuckerman Hartung
Music  by  Charlie Rauh
Poetry by Eden Pearlstein

Things make you think
Make you think things
You think things make
Think things make you

Things you think make
You think make things
Think make things you
Make things you think

Things think make you
Think make you things
Make you things think
You things think make

Things think you make
Think you make things
You make things think
Make things think you 

At root, this kaleidoscopic collection of paintings, sculpture, prints, collage, music and writings is the fruit of numerous conversations conducted and now curated by Zahar Vaks, co-director of OYG. Beginning on Captiva Island in 2018, as part of the Rauschenberg Residency, Zahar joined fellow visual artists Molly Zuckerman Hartung, Ralph Pugay, Walter Price, Tannaz Farsi, and musician Charlie Rauh for 6 weeks of intensive creation, collaboration, and communion – with each other, with the natural environment, with the work space energy legacy of an iconic artist, with their own practices and processes of making and being. The initial desire to continue these conversations and to share some of their varied influences and outgrowths with a wider community was the seed of this show.

And yet, as seeds planted in fertile soil will do in time under the right conditions, this idea grew. A series of spontaneous conversations between Zahar and poet/publisher Eden Pearlstein in the summer of 2019 presented the opportunity to expand the context of the show to include a more conceptual and poetic dimension. A collection of works meant to commemorate an intensely influential experience slowly but suddenly morphed into a creative reflection on the role of influence upon one’s creative practices and paradigms in general. Poet/Publisher Tom Haviv and Ayin Press were invited to produce a chapbook/catalogue to accompany the show. It was happening again. Encounters, electricity, intuition, openness, In/Flux. 

This inspired Zahar to further open up the curatorial field to include conversations he had been having and wanted to facilitate between the socially-engaged and historically-critical works of artists Yevgeniy Fiks and Helina Metaferia. Similarly, around the same time Zahar visited painter Fox Hysen’s studio and rekindled their creative conversations begun a year before when she visited the Rauschenberg residency and completely immersed herself in that environment and community. Whether wrestling with history, language, representation, or technology, each of these artists added a new level of depth to thinking about  how artworks are informed by the past and can transform the future through activating the present. 

The multiple modes of thinking and making represented in this show — including research, ritual, improvisation, ekphrasis, strategy, and serendipity — all demonstrate the various ways these artists engage their creative practice in relation to their influences and experiences. Taken all together, this collection of works is a snapshot of creative conversations continuing in real time. Come listen in to see what we mean. 

Experiences. Ideas. Identities.
Processes. Practices. Paradigms.
Conversations. Connections. Conventions.
Traditions. Transmissions. Transgressions.
“We are all In/Flux!”

Ortega y Gasset Projects (OyG) is a non-profit artist-run curatorial collective and exhibition space in Gowanus, Brooklyn. We embrace an exploratory model where artists take the role of curator, critic and promoter. Working without concern for commercial profit or an explicit curatorial ideology, the goal of OyG is to mount exhibitions that support under-represented, marginalized artists and emerging artists, provoke dialogue and bolster the artistic community.

Ayin is an independent press, production studio, and research collective rooted in Jewish culture and emanating outward. Ayin creates and supports work at  the intersection of Political Imagination, Speculative Theology, and Radical Aesthetics.