Inner and Outer Expressions

Nüart Gallery presents Inner and Outer Expressions, an exhibition featuring new work by Michael Bergt and Guillaume Seff. The exhibition will run from October 14 through October 30, 2022 with an opening reception on Friday, October 14, from 5-7 pm. While disparate in style, both artists’ work is an interpretation of the human condition–representing the intersection of our internal feelings and external reality.

Michael Bergt explores this concept through magical realism and contemporary interpretations of classical myth. The artist’s work is inspired by early Renaissance art in its subject and technique, yet breaks away from tradition with modern dialogues around current topics. “Myths are tales for how the world works,” he says. “Essentially revealing what creates change and illuminates the evolution of collective consciousness.” In his latest work, Bergt’s figurative subjects are realistically rendered with attributes that link them to the present day, yet are engaged in surreal narratives or classical tales layered with symbolism. As the viewer, it feels as if we are simultaneously observing the subject’s external presence while witnessing their most internal imaginings. Bergt’s exhibition of paintings and drawings revisit ancient myths, such as that of Venus and Europa, with underlying archetypes applied in a contemporary context. “We’re no longer believers in the ancient gods, but we don’t escape the metaphorical message; that life is bigger than we’re perceiving, and there are forces at play that we’re not acknowledging.”

Guillaume Seff’s abstract painting style is indicative of a more modern era in its application, yet similarly speaks to our core human emotions and experience. He explores the liminal space between absence and presence in his intentional compositional arrangements, with his intuitive mark making the integral link between form and space. “It is scripture, color, shape, matter, stitching thread, connections and meddled liaisons between my inner and our outer world,” says Seff of his abstraction. Seff’s exhibition paintings are a continuation of his Les Ouvrages du Ressentir series, in which the artist aims to portray the fabric of human emotion through abstract elements. Floating forms and blocks of color are layered with sketched letters and symbols as if the artist’s inner musings are mingling with his external existence. This intersection is further explored in pieces such as Gesticulation sur Terre, in which echoes of the human figure are layered beneath the artist’s abstraction. “The painting is like a bridge… between one and the other, or one inside the other,” states Seff. “It is like a window that we create or a door that opens. (The painting) traces what it is like to go through (that passage).”