Traveling The World

A collection of work Juried by Abbey Hepner

2020, a year with global travel restrictions, is the perfect year for an exhibition that contemplates travel. Cabin fever and wanderlust have become commonplace for so many. Travel can be both humbling and life-changing. It helps us recognize how small we are in this world. It also encourages a kind of openness that is akin to the artmaking process, enabling us to make unique connections and form new ideas. For those of us feeling a little more confined this year, French author Zavier de Maistre offers a bit of solace in his book, Journey Around my Room, which suggests that we require little more than imagination to travel.

Much like de Maistre, I'm interested in the novel investigations that happen in our own backyard, in addition to remote locations. The works selected for this exhibition investigate the act of travel and question our understanding of place broadly, from the study of light on the horizon to the investigation of iconic architectural replicas all around us. Awards were chosen from works that turned inwards as much as they turned outwards and have something to say about the journey itself and our understanding of it afterward. In many artworks, material and process linked the artist's conceptual concerns poetically. I want to thank all of the artists who submitted work to this exhibition and allowed me to travel alongside them momentarily.