"Unknown Possibilities" organized by Selby Sohn (online exhibition)

About the Exhibition

Sometimes I feel bound by the possible — that there is a limited way to configure reality, and pragmatism is slowly encroaching on all sides. I recently heard of a plot device deus ex machina, where a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly resolved by an unforeseen plot twist, and I want this to happen so badly — not only for current events, but also for my imagination. At NIAD, I found many possibilities, in Dorian Reid’s Abraham Lincoln Cat, in Jesus Salas’s Interior of the Bus, and in Karen May’s Map for Art. So many pieces in this show are Untitled, which gives me more to think about, as my mind can only guess at the unforeseen.

About the Organizer

Selby Sohn is a Bay Area artist who makes objects and actions on the brink of utility. They consider both the tech industry’s hyperbolic usefulness and art history’s valuing of objects without utility. Most of their projects involve wearable sculptures that think largely about queering use — for example, in their piece Long Arms, Selby made arm extensions that allow people to slow dance from farther away. In their performance pieces, Selby also considers audience members to be performers.

Selby has a BA in art from UCLA and attended the Mountain School of the Arts in Los Angeles. Currently, their work is on a NASA PACE-1 satellite orbiting Earth, at the de Young Museum, NIAD Art Center, and Dream Farm Commons. In the past, they also exhibited work at Liminal Space, Berkeley Art Center, Bass and Reiner, Cone Shape Top, Flowers Art Gallery, Thee Stork Club, ATA Window Gallery, Daily Diver, Pacific Art League, Fish Factory Art Space in Penryn, Cornwall, UK, the A|AH|D Gallery at the University of Notre Dame, SOMArts, through the City of Palo Alto Public Art Program, and others.

Selby curates a space called Your Mood Gallery in Dogpatch, San Francisco, and their writing is published in KQED, Squarecylinder, The Racket Journal, Third Iris, Journal.fyi, and the LA Telephone Book.