Big Orbit Gallery, 30D Essex Street, Buffalo, New York, 14213. 560.1968
It is Big Orbit Gallery's pleasure to announce, There Has to be Another Way Out of This F. Scott, an exhibition of paintings by artist Zack Boehler. Zach Beohler is a native of Buffalo, NY and a graduate of Buffalo State College. He is currently pursuing a MA in Art Education at the college. While Zach has displayed his work in numerous group exhibitions around Western New York, this will be his first gallery solo exhibition. Boehler is also a respected teaching artist who works extensively with children from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Buffalo through the Essex Street Arts Center's Simon Griffis Studio for Youth.
Artist Statement: When creating my work I often think of the Oscar Wilde quote "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." I feel my work often examines the condition the individual faces in the built environment. People constructed the urban environment to house and move large groups. The singular individual often is left to feel isolated by the constructed system and though surrounded by others at all times and continuously visually stimulated, one finds a stunning lack of meaning.
The title of this show is derived from this lack of meaning. Looking at the great literary minds of the Lost Generation and comparing their thirst for life's meaning and also their feeling of imminent collapse many lines of similarity can be drawn to the experience I have witnessed of those today. While the Hemingways and Fitzgeralds of the 1920's were disillusioned by World War I, we are not so much disillusioned as we are over-illusioned. The constant stimulus of our society has left many of the digital natives to become numb to any stimulus at all, and left voided in meaningless. Coupled with the loss of meaning is a fear of anonymity. We are left to feel that notoriety in any respect is a necessity of success, of happiness, and will cure our voids. Notoriety can only force us to delve further into the culture that has left us numb.
When we are forced to confront these feelings, and the realization that we experience them together, we find a sense of exploration. By embracing the idea of self-manifested destiny one can shake free of the over stimulation to once again perceive humanly, through curiosity and discovery. My imagery depicts these moments, where we discover meaning and feel possibility. The white flags depicted in this show are not a symbol of being beaten, they are instead a call to take action and surrender ourselves from the society that has forced unfounded mediocrity onto our shoulders. We can be pioneers; we can own these nights, manifest our histories, raise our flags and find that our anonymity is our greatest virtue while we live the legends we were born to chase.
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