DREAMS & ARCHETYPES

Posted
Event Date
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Event Location
Academy Square
33 Plymouth Street
Montclair , nj
Contact
Jorge Larrea,
jorgelarrea67@gmail.
com
Categories
Arts & Events

In “Dreams and Archetypes,” the Studio Montclair Incubator at Academy Square Galleries presents work by two local artists, Jorge Larrea and Jamie Samul, whose art expresses archetypal forms and symbolic images, inviting viewers to explore their own conscious and unconscious experiences.

The works in the exhibition reflect the words of thirteenth-century German theologian, philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart: “When the soul wants to experience something, she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.” Certain symbolic images have recurred in artwork created by human cultures throughout time— the rock as permanence and strength, the flower as spring and rebirth, breath and wind as life force, fish as sustenance and bounty— cementing themselves as archetypes, revealing a universally human psychology.

Larrea’s large charcoal drawings use elemental lines and connections to explore his innermost psychic imagery. The resulting drawings of monumental root-like structures evoke, in his words, “visceral, emotional, and abstract interpretations.” Larrea’s forms mirror both the complexity of the natural world and the landscape of human psychology. These symbols suggest a deeper connection between biological forms and universal archetypes such as those detailed by Swiss philosopher and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung in his studies of the collective unconscious.

Jamie Samul’s energy-infused paintings provide a powerful artistic and psychological counterpoint to Larrea’s methodical lines. A discourse “between chaos and consciousness,” her work pulls personal images, colors, and sensations from her own dreamscape, yet are rendered with a such a vigor and intensity that “the work itself becomes a portal for dialogue.” Samul’s unplanned process reflects the organic unfolding of human experience, giving the artist and the viewer access to “truths that words cannot express.”