Euclid Gallery – It Stands to Reason, Joy Still Exists

Euclid Gallery is pleased to present It Stands to Reason, Joy Still Exists a solo exhibition of paintings by Ari Salka. Salka provides impassioned investigations of repetition and fragmentation throughout the presentation with the vehicles of abstraction, figuration, and poetry. Despite the work’s frenetic appearance, Salka’s previous iconography of bodies can be found embedded in these works in an autobiographical approach to mark marking.

This show includes multiple paintings which have taken shape over the span of a decade. It Stands to Reason, Joy Still Exists speaks to a continuation from the artist of several guiding forces highlighted by Julie Schulte in her 2020 article Ari Salka: On Bodies (Be)held Trans Rights are Under Siege; This Artist Resists written for Artillery magazine:

"There is the feeling throughout of humming a symphony in an effort to recall, rather than commemorate; of the mad project of transcribing the song of living that no musical notation can contain without combustion. To view their work alongside the poetic titles invites us to honor the very specific experience of the artist navigating their transitioning body, while enmeshing with symbolic dynamics that are universal: the failed project of unions, the terror of metamorphosis, the thin veil between embracing and strangling, and most importantly—that any cry of celebration carries also the low notes of the lamentations that bore us.”

This grouping of works presents both large-scale and small pieces completed from 2020-2023. Employing reference to Salka’s past figurative and abstract bodies of work; as well as moving toward the artist’s most recent explorations to realize the meeting of both languages.

Please join us at Euclid Gallery for our newest exhibit, It Stands to Reason, Joy Still Exists by Ari Salka, which we will celebrate with our opening night reception on May 6th from 5-7 PM. Ari Salka (b. 1993 in Seattle, WA) is an LA-based artist who primarily works through writing, painting, and drawing. Salka holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016) and MFA in Painting from UCLA (2019). In addition, Salka studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship in Norfolk, CT (2015).

Visit https://hga.com/euclid-gallery/ for more information.