Losing Faith is an exhibition of recent work by TJ Hunt and Landon O’Brien investigating artistic identity through recontextualization.
The exhibition examines what it means to self-identify as an artist in the current pluralistic artistic climate, questioning notions of originality and cultural value in a social economy that has largely lost confidence in the power of art as a vehicle to promote a message or enact change. In steadily increasing numbers, artists are emerging from studio art degree programs onto the overpopulated art scene, struggling to extract innovative solutions to a creative crisis from recycled ideas and gestures. Rather than attempting to preserve the idealism of a romanticized past, Losing Faith addresses the status quo by embracing the cynical vocabulary of academia. Far from didactic, the works in the exhibition employ humor through appropriation and recontextualization of earlier modes of representation, visually and conceptually establishing a critical dialogue between past and present. The works question the sustainability of their own practice, even as their existence attests to the enduring nature of the creative process.
Center Space Project, the student organization of the Visual Arts Center, works collaboratively with fellow students, faculty, alumni and visiting artists to create engaging shows and programs, promoting a strong student presence in the VAC.
Bios
TJ Hunt received a B.F.A. in Studio Art and a B.A. in Art History from The University of Texas at Austin in fall 2010.
Landon O’Brien received his B.F.A. in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin in spring 2010.