Beggars of Bliss, Icons of Loss

Exhibition Overview:

Max Roemer presents “Beggars of Bliss, Icons of Loss”, new sculptures, paintings and drawings that speak to the viewer as inner figures: archetypes, genies, angels, fools, and fairy tale figures. The sculptures are “Beggars of Bliss”, large raw figures brought to life from found shapes and tree waste, connecting the pieces to the environment from which they grow, and giving expression to the bare experience of both loss and bliss. The paintings and drawings are “Icons of Loss” that echo the sculptures. They combine figures and words, one-word messages and witticism, in a primitive, playful style. “My art is pure play”, says Roemer, “nothing less.”

All sales and proceeds will benefit ArtReach, a nonprofit providing arts education to more than 6000 students at Title 1 schools in San Diego County. Visit ArtReachSanDiego.org

Artist Statement:

Don’t ask “What would Wang Wei do?” You know that already: drink wine, meet friends, meditate on nature, make paintings, write poems, tend to the garden. He would do the same here and now, in Encinitas today: Meet friends, water the garden, cook, paint, write poems, get in the water. Repeat. Daily actions, forming thoughts, forming mind, recluse, aware and awake, seeking the spiritual in the mundane and the basic blessing of head in cold water.

The question is “How to paint? Make art? Find poetry?” How to reimagine the tradition of literati artists, reimagine the spirit of the recluse here and now? How to express the ideal and practice of the craftless amateur, here, on a different continent, and now, in a hyper-industrialized, consumption-crazed society?

Play here and now, in suburban irreconcilably nonsensical Southern California - because and in spite of it. Play in the realization that nothing more than play is needed, that nothing less will do. Play as daily practice, as the last and first political act, protest and life-affirming act. Play as the Great Refusal, the big No, and the little Yes.