Baloney & Cheese
by M.N.V. (Krista Acheson)
The Art Incubator Gallery, March 6 – April 18, 2020
Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, from 7 pm – 10 pm
Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, 3rd floor, 10215 – 112 St, Edmonton
Have you ever had someone try to “sell” themselves to you, by attempting to mirror your interests; working every angle to replicate sincere human connection for the sole purpose of getting in you – like a handful of unwelcome keys being frantically shoved at your lock? Have you experienced when a persons’ entire fixation has centered wholly on you, with an unnerving intensity, right up until the very moment they discover that you’re not going to have sex with them and then *POOF!* they disappear into the ether? I think this exhibition was borne out of decades of experiencing the tedium of those types of interactions; the work stems from the feeling of not being regarded as a person so much as a sexual conquest. The exhibit is a series of sculptures and paintings featuring metaphoric depictions of: childish behavior, mindless sexual consumption, insincerity, self-serving social interactions and, of course, being cheesy and full of baloney.
Baloney & Cheese is an M.N.V. exhibit, so you can expect that there is a fairly detached nature to the work – it’s meant to act as a visual puzzle. The viewer can generally discern the elemental concepts comprised in an artwork, and catch the gist no matter how ridiculous it appears, it’s always tethered to a graspable rudimentary statement.
There’s a lot of idioms, common jargon and sexual innuendo woven throughout; I think it’s open enough that people can easily develop their own interpretation, but for the more pragmatic viewer there is always a meaning behind the piece that I’m happy to explain.
M.N.V. (Krista Acheson)
Artist’s Biography
Krista Acheson is a self-taught artist living and working in Edmonton. She exhibits under 3 aliases, each with it’s own directive and method of expression. Her art practice can be most neatly defined as: one alias is dedicated to work based on personal experiences (Krista Acheson), another for work meant to impact the viewer emotionally (Gerri Harden) and, lastly, one that artistically depicts observations, meant to be deciphered on a more cerebral level (M.N.V.).