The World We Share

As 2021 arrives, RJD Gallery curated an exhibition that helps define inner feelings and the current times. The show, titled The World We Share, will feature artwork from artists such as Geoffrey Laurence, Julia Chen, Matt R. Martin, Salvatore Alessi, Margaret Bowland and Frank Oriti.

“The New Year is upon us, and as always, artists and their art will help define who we are in this moment. It plays a major role to help show ourselves to ourselves, a reflection of our innermost feelings and current times,” says gallery director Joi Jackson Perle. “The challenges of last year—a near-perfect storm of pandemic, upheaval and uncertainty, led us to a new way of living, socially distanced but connected through and grounded by the arts. Art speaks of change, renewal and endless possibilities in the world we share, and we are excited to see where art leads us in the next 12 months.”

For the last 10 years, Oriti has taken the same route to work and has driven by the basketball hoop pictured in his painting The Last Shot. He always appreciated its tarnished state, having gone through all the seasons in Cleveland, year after year. He finally pulled over to get a closer look and took photographs. “About a month after I stopped off to capture this basketball hoop, I drove past it one morning and realized it was taken down,” he shares. “This painting now stands as the proof—not just that the hoop once existed, but that perhaps it made someone’s childhood. It taught someone. It passed someone’s time.”

Alessi’s painting Between Us was inspired by Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas, which Alessi describes as “an enigmatic work that lures the viewer in time and again with its layered presentation of realities and relationships. In the background of Las Meninas, the viewer can perceive that the queen and king of Spain have the same point of view as our own.”