by Britta Erickson
We live in an age of short attention spans and rushed days.  Sound bites replace news; fast food replaces leisurely meals; e-mail replaces letter-writing and telephone conversations.  Frenetic activity seems an end in itself, ironically resulting in less time and patience for the new, unless it be sensational or bombastic or readily accessible.  The artist Michael Cherney has turned away from this mind-set.  He examines minutiae for meaning, and expresses that meaning in labor-intensive works of art that require the audience to stop, look, and think.
All the works in this exhibition involve fresh visions of the familiar.  While some look to detail for meaning, others create meaning from a novel vantage:  works in the Bounded by Mountains series each are based on a narrow slice of a photograph.  The Northern Song Spirit Road, from this series, depicts a set of statues lining a road from two distinct perspectives.
Commentary on Cherney¡¯s work from scholars and critics:

"What surprised me was that Michael, an artist who has grown up in the United States, could penetrate to the essence of traditional Chinese art to the point where he has been able to blend its spirit and materials with new ideas and sentiments to create a new artistic form that is both at variance and in harmony with Chinese tradition." -- Shao Dazhen (Professor, Central Academy of Art;  Director, Chinese Artist Association Theory Committee)

 "Michael's specific characteristics lie in his taking the playful approach of the traditional Chinese literati and the rules of these games that they play, along with classic images and relics, and entering into a new round of games with them.." -- Yin Jinan (Professor of Art History, Dean of the Department of Art History, and Dean of the College of Humanities at China's Central Academy of Fine Art)

 "For a Chinese art historian, both the distinctive 'sliced imagery' and format of Michael Cherney's art are classical and modern at the same time.  The imagery (or segments, or excerpts) resulting from the enlargement of slices shifts between the abstract and the concrete.  The work thus possesses breathtaking charm, and offers limitless imaginary space for the viewer." -- Lee Huishu (Professor of Art History, University of California at Los Angeles)

 "The images remain abstract until the unfolding of the album; as the eye and mind of the viewer slowly acclimate to bring the complete work into focus, the result is a kind of 'ah-ha' experience.   Subject matter that was at first hidden, secretive, almost unknown, becomes unmasked." -- Judith Hoffberg (Librarian and archivist, editor and publisher, lecturer and curator; founder of the Art Libraries Society of North America)

 "Cherney's enlarged, abstract images have relieved photography of the burden of  'faithful recording'.  Only through liberation from the burden of xingsi (likeness in form) might abstract thought processes come alive, just as photography's relieving painting of the burden of shensi (likeness in spirit) ushered in a new era of diversity and vibrancy in the history of modern painting.  Cherney reendows the medium of photography with a new territory of conflicting forces.  Within the intimate ambiance of Chinese traditional art, we can accept photography as an art form without hesitation".  -- Leo Chen (Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota)

 "Michael Cherney shares with us an alternative window on the world, hinting at the rewards resulting from close and thoughtful scrutiny of the visual realm." -- Britta Erickson (Independent scholar and curator of contemporary Chinese art)