Curator: Jiang Ye

Opening Reception: 5:00PM-6:00PM April 24 (Mondayy)

Venue: Pratt MFA Studio, 630 Flushing Ave

I read therefore I am is a group exhibition of text related art, which can be any text-based art or visual art works related to readable symbols. All of artists selected in this show are young artists based in New York.

From the earliest use of text in Dadaist painter Rene Magrette’s work as “anti-aesthetic sentiment” to present, texts are widely used as “Socio-political artistic mechanism”. Text came to have a crucial role in contemporary art. The artists in this group show are all using text as an important element in their works, and are adding new value to this important art genre.

In the work named Exercises to think about yourself, artist Bárbara Oettinger uses the process of burning unreadable pencil marks to express the inner human emotions of purifying. The texts are treated as a symbol of our living experiences and unforgettable memories. Another piece of work, Musk, made by artist Trevis True, the uniqueness of text is utilized. By changing few words in original sentences, Trevis True successfully connected two absolutely different fields and made a powerful critic on the art education system. As opposing the significance of meanings and interpretations, artist Hongyu Pu holds a quite opposite position of using texts. She carries forward the theory of the content and form relationship from minimalism, and visualized the texts according to their subjects.