Curated by Mery Lynn McCorkle

September 10 through October 9, 2004

These five artists create still lifes appropriate for our time. Instead of the precise rendering of 17th century Dutch oil paintings, the artists use contemporary forms to prove "ars longa, vita brevis." (Art is long, life is short) Jill Larson photographs the decay of flowers, displaying the elegance of decomposition. Joe Goodwin uses plants literally as elements in his monoprints, embedding their forms in art, manufacturing fossils. Lindsey Brown's large canvases are collaged with plant material and delicate designs, sharing the beauty and vanitas of trying to capture the natural world. Thomas Muller takes a pea, an orange and a tomato, casts them in plaster and then places them on a shelf to demonstrate exactly how much longer art lasts over real life. Nick Agid, the alchemist, paints and chemically treats plexiglass into imitating a petri dish of color and lifeforms. The artists are from Los Angeles, New York and Pittsburgh.

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