Bearing is an exploration of understanding, of perseverance, of struggle, and most importantly, the hope that brews within it.
“Bearing” presents an expanded view of the artist’s world; intertwining ceramic sculpture with wood, fiber, granite and pine needles presented alongside paintings to form a heartfelt survey of contemporary life. Playing between abstraction and figuration, the work draws inspiration from ancient petroglyphs and modern cartoons, linking through time modes of expression that look beyond realism into emotive and raw states of being. Bearing points toward the weight of personhood and the knotted tangles of identity; the parts inseparable from the whole and the messiness of it all. It surfaces ideas of taking stock, of finding a moment to better orient oneself, of assessing the weights we carry and those that are placed upon us and the communities we live in.
Cloud, a multidisciplinary artist with a background in animation, explores the concept of layering, navigating the different kinds of weights we carry as individuals, and the understanding, perseverance, struggle, and most importantly, the hope that brews within it.
The show is active and thought-provoking. Splashes of vibrant color contrast a muted base palette, highlighting the dichotomy of oil paint and clay. Figuration and abstraction push and pull in Cloud’s work, resulting in an exhibition that reminds viewers that “the very things that define us, can also swallow us.”
