On November 5th we headed over to Studio Vendome Projects in SOHO for opening night of our friend Nelson Saiers “Blindfolded in Gravities Shadow” art exhibit. Saiers, former money manager, “merges mathematics with his personal philosophy to find a new, visual way of exploring human nature. His art wrestles with the important mysteries of life: love, evil, human equality and the very nature of art”.
The gallery itself it very charming with exposed wood beams, brick walls and a layout that allows people to enjoy Saiers work in thoughtfully curated sections. The front room showcases his “Love is Blind” paintings where Saiers portrays perfect love as being beautifully flawed. Through his use of braille, placement of color, and circles he successfully expresses love as all-seeing and all-accepting. I couldn’t agree more, love is most beautiful when we celebrate each others uniqueness. Perfect love is blind, a shallow reflection of limited love. Deep love is unconditional and flawed in ways that we can see and accept.
The second room houses a wall of his geometric paintings cleverly called “2overcome”. His inspiration was “one of the most radical formulas of all time” (2 = v + f – e). The formula states that when you add up the vertices of any complex polyhedron (like the shapes depicted in the painting) and then subtract the edges, you are left with v = 2, no matter how many faces the shape has”. Saiers focus has always been on numbers and his art expresses this passion in a visually stimulating, thought provoking way. This series was my daughter’s favorite and her comment was “his work reminds me of Leonardo DaVinci because he combines both math and art making it one”. Saiers shows personal evolution with this brave career change, he has overcome boundaries by following his dream and expressing his passion for numbers on a more personal level.
Center on the back wall was an eye catching painting called “Ship of Theseus”. This painting resonated with me, I was drawn to the boat floating atop a bubble. This balancing act, in my opinion, represents how life can change in an instant. Life is fragile, our reality can change at any moment, we are not in control of the big picture and letting go keeps us balanced. Saiers description of this piece is “the ship in the painting floats on a bubble full of Braille letters that spell out a quotation from Isaac Newton, which reads, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.” There are several ways to interpret the painting, but in part, Saiers said the piece is meant to reassure viewers that their confusion about the world lands them in good company”.
The exhibit is definitely worth stopping in to see. I’m am impressed with Saiers ability to combine mathematics with the arts while making it relate to the average person. Well done Nelson, you stayed true to yourself and your gifts while beautifully sharing a whole new side of you.
~Miss Kiss~
Painting featured is “love is blind” by Nelson Saiers
