Lust of the Flesh

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Lust of the Flesh *

Throughlines | January 25 - February 18, 2024

Alex Blom, Kade Sawyer, Sarah Woodward

“The specific hardness of a church pew; the immediatkley recognizable smell of your family home’s basement; the anonymity of romaing a new town. These sharp sensory expereinces, constantly absorbed in the places we inhabit, inform this blurry process of becoming. Artists Alex Blom, Kade Sawyer, and Sarah Woodward each engage closely with the work of reconciling past selves with present growth and spaces that have, or will, define such phases of our lives.”

Written by Zoe Ariyama

Create Award Residency at Art Gym Denver

The Create Award is a 6-month residency for recent graduates from creative disciplines (fine arts, digital art, performing arts, etc.)

Participants receive a 6-month membership to Art Gym with access to equipment and tools needed to establish themselves after graduation. As a member, residents quickly become part of a community of artists who help navigate the business side of becoming successful in the art world.

By engaging in peer-to-peer mentoring and professional critiques, Create Award residents grow and thrive in a supportive environment of like-minded individuals. The residency program culminates in a celebretory exhibtion and/or performance on display in Art Gym’s professinal gallery space or performance studio.

Lust of the Flesh | Alex Blom

Through an exploration of Catholic iconography, this body of work seeks to reconcile religious and childhood trauma and empower the person I have become. By using art historical narratives, and ultimately conflating them with queer cultural references, I further expand on the cult of self-narrative that perpetuates in my work at large. I gravitate towards combinations of two opposing ideologies in my work. This work navigates the conflict between my experience with spirituality and sexuality.

Drawing references to the Epistle of Barnabas, a first century Greek apocryphal text, I have constructed a space meant to be intimate and reflective while coaxing a purveyor into rethinking how they view spirituality in the scope of queerness. The slaughter and implied consumption of the hare, hyena, and weasel paired with nude self portraits convey stoicism and nonchalant-ness. This person didn’t just kill these animals and eat them, they sought them out and took them down with confidence and pride. They are owning their sexual and gender deviancies – unashamed of putting it all out on display for the audience to see. Accompanying the window-like panels are objects that widely walk the line of distaste.These works aim take what is hidden away in the name or purity and elevate them to relic status.