FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2022
Feldsott: Howls That Wake Us in the Night
A new exhibition from the prolific artist’s late career examines a postcolonial world of crisis in need of redemption
New York, NY – Artist Feldsott exhibits Howls That Wake Us in the Night at Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury, September 8, 2022 – October 21, 2022.
Howls That Wake Us in the Night examines Feldsott’s prolific and profound meditation on postcolonial traumas, violence, and human redemption. The exhibition includes nearly 40 mixed media paintings ranging from the early 2000s to today, a time encapsulating not only historical atrocities like the detentions in Guantanamo Bay, the U.S.-Mexico border crisis, the torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib, or the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also ongoing crises of environmental collapse, war, and injustice.
Rather than reporting events, however, Feldsott explores the depths of the psyche and the primordial energies from which these human impulses originate, asking important questions about the nature of violence, cruelty, and how we might heal our spiritual and societal wounds. Through this engaging body of work, Feldsott offers a powerful moral compass amidst relentless crisis.
“There is this opportunity of a new creative possibility to change our way of being in the world. These are challenging times, but also incredibly inspiring and extraordinary times.” – Feldsott
One of the youngest exhibitors ever at SFMOMA in 1975, Feldsott all but disappeared from the art world, spending the next 25 years traveling back and forth to Central and South America,, where he worked with ecological restoration and cultural conservation projects and studied traditional medicine with Indigenous communities. Throughout this period, he continued to create a large body of artistic work that, together with his past and current work, become a record of the human journey.
“Feldsott’s mission as an artist is to incessantly question and challenge the underlying causes of the crises of our time, raising public awareness in the hope of restoring lost humanity.” – Hyewon Yi, Amelia A. Wallace Gallery Director
Feldsott’s dynamic and expressionistic styles have been compared to German Expressionism as well as Outsider Art. This exhibition presents a mature stage of Feldsott’s oeuvre that harks back to the traditions of 20th Century Expressionists, who also took inspiration from societies outside the mainstream. Feldsott has been an avid traveler and healer, having spent years in South America and seeking spiritual experiences in faraway places. He shares the Expressionists’ affinity for flattened planes, crude, strong outlines, large exaggerated bodies, swirling movements, and energetic brushwork. The emotional power of these works often evoke devastation and anguish reminiscent of Picasso’s Guernica (1937), adding to the roster of timeless anti-war images.
Feldsott will also be in conversation with photographer and photojournalist Daniel Arnold, whose work regularly appears in The New York Times and Vogue.
The exhibition is curated by Amelie A. Wallace Gallery Director Hyewon Yi.
Exhibition Details
Dates: September 8, 2022 – October 21, 2022
Public Reception: Thursday, September 15, 4:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College at Old Westbury
Conversation with the Artist and Daniel Arnold: Wednesday, September 14, 3:50 – 5:20 pm
About Feldsott
Feldsott is a California-based painter and sculptor who has been creating art for over five decades.
After moving from Chicago to the Bay Area at seventeen, he attended the California College of the Arts, becoming the first student to earn an MFA without an undergraduate degree. He then became the youngest exhibitor ever at SFMOMA in the 1975 exhibition Fetishes.
His work is often noted by the likes of several art historians and critics, including art critic Robert C. Morgan and Peter Selz, former curator of the Museum of Modern Art. He has exhibited at SFMOMA, Bolinas Museum, Hyde Park Art Center, Minnesota Art Museum, and many art galleries around the United States.
He currently lives and works in the Bay Area.
Website: www.feldsott.com
Instagram: @feldsott
