I kept wanting to tell y’all about my love for Bombas Gens, a contemporary art center in Valencia. Every time I’ve gone in recent years, I thought: Oh this is so good, I gotta tell my people. Adult ADHD and other honorable excuses get in the way. Yesterday, I went again and vowed to break the cycle!

Friday, April 8, 2022. Exhibition Opening. 19:00. In Search of Meta-Infinite presents photographs and paintings by the Japanese artist Shigeru Ōnishi. Most of the works are shown in Europe for the first time. What does Ōnishi depict? Well… literally, everything. The time-space continuum: multiple moments, processes, subjects, layered onto a surface at once. It’s not easy to engage with. One is tempted to dismiss it as nothing. Who has patience for all the blurs, smears, bits of what exactly?! Yet, I am drawn to these images by emotional recognition. That was my Tuesday. This is how I remember the 90’s. There’s a portrait of what’s their name, being with them felt like that. Between everything and nothing is where we keep our most prized possessions: love, dreams, trauma.

It goes: untitled, untitled, Pebble Portrait, untitled… The notes are informative, but unhelpful. He studied mathematics, wrecked canon by combining film development with painting techniques, shunned Japanese art trends of his time, nearly vanished from collectors’ radars. Shigeru Ōnishi defied curatorial compartmentalization for the marketspace. “We don’t know why he did what he did the way he did it.” That’s my summary of what can be said. You don’t have to understand these artworks. You can feel them. In fact, it might serve as a test on whether or not we are capable of identifying and feeling our feelings. Talk to your therapist if this exhibition is right for you 🙂

The abstract paintings were delightfully spellbinding. Great choice to place them after the photos. It felt like a treat for the brain for making it through the harder content. Who’s a good art boy!? All that color turns the vast open space into a cozy nest of fascinating emotions. Also, very Instagram-ready. To me, that’s a legit reason/way to get more people into galleries to experience art offline. Hey, museums that prohibit taking pictures inside, what are you even doing!?

I loved seeing kids there/here. Culture is a great habit to cultivate early. I also loved that m@therf*cking fly on the m@therf*cking wall. Somehow it made my night, made the artsy-fartsy stuff a bit more fartsy, made me smile. When you go “in search of the meta-infinite,” don’t take the journey too seriously. If your metaverse does not include flies, log me out! Another nod to pop culture synergy. Ōnishi died five years before Matrix blew our collective minds in 1999. This year, I am excited to see Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Different art practice, same pursuit of meaning beyond limitations of form.

I’ll share my three favorite works from the Shigeru Ōnishi exhibition on my Patreon

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I cannot wait to visit @bombasgens again soon!