In the dead of Winter, even February can see a temporary thaw. Such moment of relative warmth reminds us that, from the raw West Wind blowing across Chelsea from the Hudson, eventually come warmer breezes to usher in the rebirth the blossoming of a creative Spring.

In this, the final section of “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley takes a remarkable turn, transforming the wind into a metaphor for his own art, the expressive capacity that drives “dead thoughts” like “withered leaves” over the universe, to “quicken a new birth”—that is, to quicken the coming of the Spring. Metaphorically, this Spring symbolizes the possibilities of the poetic faculties, and the powers of aesthetic expression—a guiding spirit of this new group show at Stux. Encompassing painting, photography, and sculpture, the works on view each seek in their own way to awaken the allusive imagination of the viewer, sparking inventive connections that will play through the gallery space, building a new fire, stoked by this wind.

Featured artists: Sokari Douglas Camp, Josef Fischnaller, Heide Hatry, Valerie Jaudon, Aaron Johnson, Dana Melamed, Dennis Oppenheim, Hamid Rahmanian, Rúrí, Kathy Ruttenberg, Kinki Texas and Barnaby Whitfield.

-Stefan Stux Gallery

Image: © Josef Fischnaller
Infantin Eva
2010
C-print, acrylic, aluminum-dibond
160 x 120cm