"Chaos and Awe" looks at the fears from the known and unknown in exhibition at the Chrysler

Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Tambour II, 2015.
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Tambour II, 2015.(Courtesy of the Chrysler of Museum / Handout)

Mark Scala, chief curator at Frist Art Museum in Nashville, noticed a few years ago particular themes emerging in contemporary artwork.

Artists were painting pieces that conveyed waves of anxiety and instability. As he spoke with artists, the painters said they were speaking to the confusion of old and new conflicts facing the world, including racism and new problems stemming from technology.


"It wasn't a phenomenon that was limited to the United States," Scala said.

Scala has organized the exhibition "Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century" that features 50 paintings from 30 American and international artists. The show opens Friday at the Chrysler Museum of Art.


The exhibition's title has an "and" in it for a reason. While many natural and manmade events can create chaos, they can also leave people struck with wonder.

People can be mesmerized, for example, by the power and sight of a tornado while still being devastated by its force. Over the centuries, commerce expanded and new cultures were created when one country colonized another. Yet, people and old ways of life were destroyed in the process.

Kimberli Gant, the Chrysler's McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, said the show will introduce local patrons to popular international artists they might not otherwise see. She likes that the show ties into the Chrysler's 18th century collection when artists were also painting large pieces of sweeping land and seascapes to capture their awe.

"The idea of the sublime is that you as an individual are overwhelmed and awed; you are terrified simultaneously by the majesty and limitlessness of the environment and of God," Gant said. "Artists were trying to replicate that feeling. ... These places are places that humans can't control."

"Chaos and Awe" is organized into seven sections. It begins with "No Place," which looks at mammoth systems such as communications technology and international finance. Another section, "Shadows and Collisions" explores the fears and angst that come from differing opinions of nationalism, racism and religion.

He opened the show with themes of anxiety and helplessness. However, he hopes viewers also will latch onto the idea of acceptance and embracing "ungraspable" things and realizing that is how change occurs.

"If there's a thing called chaos in the world, the response can be shaped by people," Scala said.

"You can say, 'I can choose to hide behind the wall or I can choose to take it down.' "

?Denise M. Watson, 757-446-2504, denise.watson@pilotonline.com

If you go

"Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century" at the Chrysler Museum of Art, One Memorial Place, Norfolk

Dates Friday through April 28.

Cost Free


Visit www.chrysler.org or call 757-664-6200

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