George Bolster
Intergalactic Romanticism: Fallible Earthlings
February 23—March 30, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, February 23, 6—8 pm
George Bolster, Matching the Physical Body to the Gender of the Mind (detail), 2023. Acrylic, debroidery and embroidery on jacquard. 79 1/4 x 59 1/4 inches / 203.1 x 150.5 cm
There are over 200 billion suns in this galaxy, and it is estimated that every second one has a planetary system orbiting it. George Bolster examines the human position in this immense universe, using the discoveries of exoplanets and ancient galaxies as clues to re-interpreting our culture and place in the cosmos.
In Intergalactic Romanticism: Fallible Earthlings, Bolster fuses digital and physical painting with tapestry. Each work has multiple stages of discreet analogue and digital processes within it, including embroidery and manipulation of the image by unthreading, the result of his interaction with machines. Through this process, he attempts to create images of the as-yet impossible-to-see surface landscapes of planets outside our solar system. Bolster acknowledges the fallibility of our society and culture: “We need to not live through fiction, but embrace reality as a positive state for our survival.” As the artist embroiders in The Only Intelligent Life Found (2024), one of the tapestry on view, we are meaningless and meaningful. Humans are small and fallible but also absolutely extraordinary—it is necessary to cherish each life we have. Acceptance of this will ultimately help us to recognize and accept who we are.
Astronomy as a scientific inquiry continuously distorts the idea of what humans really are and meant to be. Humankind is not necessarily central to the scheme of the universe. The Earth is actually in an insignificant part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which overturns our beliefs about our special place within it. Bolster’s work and perspective experiment grant this alternative view to see this landscape, shifting the focus of historical and political attentions. Many, of course, choose to live their lives based on fictional origin stories, believing they are destined to go to another world after death, while sitting on the precipice of long-term environmental and cultural disaster.
The exhibition opens on Friday, February 23, with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8 pm. Intergalactic Romanticism: Fallible Earthlings, is a long-awaited second solo exhibition with the gallery by multidisciplinary artist George Bolster, after his first solo exhibition in 2020 and solo presentation with the gallery at the Amory Show 2021.
George Bolster is a multidisciplinary research-based artist addresses ideas and belief systems from various media and perspective—through his ambitiously immersive text and image works encompassing film, installation, tapestry and photography. He utilizes a combination of science, art history, and sci-fi to examine our most prescient societal and species-wide challenges. Bolster has exhibited in a number of museums and galleries, including Barbara Thumm Galerie, Berlin, DE; MASS MoCA, MA; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; RHA, Dublin, Ireland; CCI, Paris, France; and MMCA, Seoul, Korea. Bolster has been awarded grants from the Arts Council of Ireland, and is the recipient of residencies at Bundanon, Bundanon Museum, Australia; CCI, Paris, France (2019); SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA (2016-17); and the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, FL (2013). Bolster’s monograph When Will We Recognize Us was recently published by Hirmer, and his work has appeared in Artforum, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Irish Art Review.
