"All I can do is try to recognize, and then follow, the personhood of each painting—the fact that, like other persons, a painting is at once an object in the world and a subject apprehending the world. This personhood implies irreducible complexity—as it does for us all. Like any other person, a painting is at the same time distinct from the surrounding world and an extension of that world. Paintings are at once necessarily always the same (owing to the strong form of “painting”—which is also a physical model of the way we see the world—we know what it is to be a painting; that is, a painting is an idea) and necessarily always different (a painting is a contingent physical circumstance; that is, a painting is a body). But a painting does not offer a solution to the mind-body problem so much as it shows us the undermining of this distinction. This is why we need paintings. We need them to live.” -Allmaier
Allmaier’s radical commitment to this personhood, which implies a concomitantly radical commitment to learning, has led his practice to include writing (Which World, an ongoing cycle of essays, was first published by James Fuentes in 2014, with a second edition forthcoming) and broadly-defined painting—not necessarily involving paint or canvas—some examples of which will be included in this exhibition.
