Presence, Memory, and Time Merge in the Surreal Works of ‘Architects of Absence’
Architects of Absence, a group exhibition at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco (through August 29), explores the philosophical intersection between absence and presence through surrealist works by five artists spanning multiple media. Curated around Sartre’s concept of absence as a transformative presence, the show features oil paintings and mixed-media works by Dabin Ahn addressing loss and temporal passage, architectural graphite drawings and pastels by Yaxkin Fuentes-Barrientos (artist-in-residence at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House), carved clay roof tiles by Selva Aparicio sourced from the same Buffalo landmark, and works by Surrealist pioneers Remedios Varo and Marcel Jean. Silhouettes, light-shadow interplay, and symbolic architectural motifs function as visual language for remembrance and psychological presence. The exhibition investigates mythic and alchemical dimensions of imagination alongside material documentation of industrial and biological decline, mapping the absences that constitute lived reality.
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