Unison Arts Presents New Exhibition: U Explore

From Dec. 1-4, Unison Arts in New Paltz is exhibiting the works of various artists for the U Explore Sketching & Drawing Show.

The show follows the previous exhibition Motrix, an array of hairy, spiky and furry art all created by artist Martha Guillorn. U Explore displays the art that local artists have made inspired by the works in Motrix. 

Guillorn created pieces that are uncomfortable yet beautiful in their own forms. These works focused on how attraction and repulsion, fear and desire, and intimidation and magic can and often do exist in the same places. “You can be both drawn to something or attracted to it, and be repulsed or afraid of it,” said Guillorn.

Guillorn created various clay orifices, which she describes as beings that exist in our heads. “I deal a lot with emotions, thoughts and memories that are rattling around your head and you want to put them out,” said Guillorn. These flesh-like clay beings have hair, teeth and nails on them. “I use a lot of teeth, hair and fur, and the teeth are defense mechanisms.”

Some are put in cages, boxes and bowls, with many containing elements of nature like chestnuts, leaves and plants. “So I take them out of my head and give them real forms in the real world, and I also display them in the same ways that we handle our own memories or emotions,” said Guillorn. “They’re alive, and they can stay alive, but they can’t grow and reach their maximum potential.” Guillorn has found a fascination in the contradiction between interior and exterior and exhibits this in her art. Her use of chestnuts in a piece where the spiky organisms fill a baby cradle show this. “There’s spikes everywhere. But then there’s a flesh inside,” she said, noting how this relates to human beings. 

Guillorn’s art is often not planned and is made intuitively, making the works in Motrix feel intricate, natural and deeply human, allowing every piece in U Explore to reflect this sentiment. 

Artist Xuewu Zheng drew some of Guillorn’s pieces on paper plates and framed them to mount them on the wall, creating a sense of delicacy and fragility in a material that is disposable. Zheng’s drawings captured the intricacies of Guillorn’s work in ink. 

Xiaodong Smith displayed tea pots, with etchings showing the routes of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. The pots tell a story, one that connects the ancient to the modern. 

Grace Lin He also brought drawings inspired by the works in Motrix, which connect to Taoism, a philosophy and religious tradition that originated in China. Her drawings present themes found in the natural world – spirals and designs that connect to the softness in nature and showing that there is an order to everything. “Everything goes without control,” she said, showing how nature works within the universe. 

Other artists took the shape of a piece and made their own drawing within it or created abstract line drawings of Guillorn’s pieces.