Behind Innocence

Reviving one's youth through works of art reveals the desire to relive the past and control the future at the same time. The reminiscence of the old days, once filled with passion, sometimes knocks on our doors without any precaution to awaken and liven up our dull daily lives, and often times brings us bittersweet smiles over the long-gone but once-cherished dreams. In retrospect, however, the emptiness and confusion in the whirlwind of passions played an essential role in the search for one's inner self. In the desolate and attractive prelude of life called "youth", we are all innocent, yet easily breakable.

Behind Innocence, an exhibition of the works of Norbert Bisky, Anthony Goicolea, and Martin Maloney, casts light on each artist's respective portrayal of youth. Paintings of young boys with ideal physique in the works of the German painter Bisky remind us of visuals back in East German's socialist regime propagating healthy and fit bodies. At the same time, his pieces criticize the dark side of capitalism and consumerism which overly focuses on external youth and beauty. Maloney's pieces, which are more expressive than Bisky's, capture scenes from our ordinary daily lives. His paintings have a dual side to it as he uses his child-like drawings to portray subjects close to our worldly reality. On the other hand, Goicolea unravels the alternative life of adolescence from a philosophical and psychological perspective using photography and video. The innocent vitality that distinguishes the precocious teens gives us a moment to think about what constitutes the essence of life.

The coexistence of beauty and vulgarity captured in the works of Picasso was probably an attempt to portray the dual nature of human existence. We hope this exhibition will provide an opportunity for all of us to remember the innocence of youth, and moreover, what lies beneath.

Behind Innocence
Norbert Bisky, Anthony Goicolea, Martin Maloney