Epiphany is a group show I curated for Co-Lab Projects in September 2024 about subverting comfort with the provocative and beautiful work of Kate Csillagi, Michelle Marchesseault, Diana Welch and Mimi Bowman. Their sculpture, ceramics, installations, videos, sound works and mural painting defied expectation and in doing so, embraced the intention of the exhibition. How do we interpret a revelation? What quantifies blown expectations? The divine nature of art lies in the lack of a singular measure of meaning. No standard of beauty, trash, value, or brilliance exists, so why not push beyond what is safe or easily digested? And this is just what these four artists did- in the heat of Texas swelter in a converted cement culvert, on the outskirts of a town sick with overdevelopment, while using raw materials at hand and the depth of their visceral intuitions. Rather than choose works from their work that had already sparked my neurons, I asked them to undertake visions that risk, push, confound, anger or confuse us. I trust in these formative moments to help culture evolve. To believe in the exceptional, the dangerous, the potentially offensive with a risk of failure, estrangement, alienation. Challenging our expected interpretation and giving ourselves over to the unknown is the chance we take for growth. Stasis and silence are death. Disruption at its finest returns us to a pure state of infantile openness, our senses in a purgatorial free fall when words fail to serve. With this assignment, Kate made a symbolic mural exploding with sensuality and color, alongside an eel fountain and a totemic statue in honor of her mother. The tall dinner party table by Michelle Marchessault is out of reach and out of view, except as reflected by a mirror on the ceiling, with a soundtrack that evokes raucous dinner theatre. Mimi Bowman’s videos remain enthralling with a sick pallor of physical boundaries, global backdrops and visceral playfulness that are singular and unforgettable. Lastly, the stoneware work of Diana Welch recalled both punk sensibilities and historical provenance, challenging our relationship to statuary.  2024