Fischman Gallery
Address: 133 North Commerce Street, Johnson City, TN 37604
Dates: January 4 - 31, 2023
Hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm, Saturday 9am - 3:15pm, Sunday 10am - 12pm
Website: facebook.com/FischmanGallery
The Fischman Gallery’s first exhibit of 2023, Good Grief, features work from 22 different artists across the region, showcasing their unique interpretations of grief. Such an intense circumstance such as grief accentuates both our human individualities as well as our propensity for human connection. As one of the most profound and complex emotional journeys in the human experience, grief has a way of causing isolation. It is common as humans too often to try to hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in layers of shame. Doing so causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, making it difficult to live a full life. Creating art is a way to give voice to our pain and process it. Throughout the history of the world, countless artists have found reprieve by using their feelings of grief to inform their work. Grief is essential to the human experience, as you cannot have life without loss.
The diversity with which the artists approached our topic parallels the equally variable journey of grief. Good Grief artists have incorporated themes of loss from chronic pain, mental illness, the pandemic, the climate crisis, and more into the creation of their works. Their motivations differ–some use the process of creation as a coping mechanism, a way to work through their pain, while others use it to avoid their pain. Others still use their feelings of loss to bring attention to a particular social or political issue that is important to them. In all of these, we begin to see the byproduct of grief: connection. Within the roaring solitude of grief is a quiet, persistent call for human connection. For those experiencing loss, this connection is a lifeline. For those around them, it is an invitation to empathy. Overall, Good Grief aims to give voice to artists addressing concepts of mourning and loss, not only widening our perception of loss but opening our eyes to the greater opportunity for human connection within it.
- Carla Taylor and Rae Tayo, Co-Curators