Ran Adler

Artist:  Ran Adler

Genre:  Assemblage

Gallery:  Judith Liegeois Designs, Naples, FL; Gardner Colby Gallery, Naples, FL

His Art:

Ran Adler is a self-taught assemblage artist who employs various elements of nature as his medium which he wires, weaves and strings together into unique organic structures that serve as needed reminders of the staggering unpredictability and humbling power of nature lurking just outside. His horsetail reed, thorn and seedpod constructs don’t just shape the space in which they are exhibited. They open the mind to the fragility, if not futility, of our pretentious efforts to control our physical environment. They underscore our overarching responsibility as stewards of the planet.

The harmonious transformation of chaos into ordered systems results from Adler’s meditative process. The often repetitive and rhythmic movements of threading, inscribing and assembling become a meditative or prayer-like state of mind from which remediation of external forces is understood and expressed in the work. That respectful, contemplative state transfers to those who have the good fortune to view his work.

Currently represented by Judith Liegeois Designs in Naples, Gardner Colby Gallery in Naples and Blackman Cruz in Los Angeles, Adler has exhibited widely in the United States in solo and group exhibitions. He is the artist in residence at Judith Liegeois in Naples and the guest artist at Florida Gulf Coast University.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Assemblage artist Ran Adler exerts ‘Presence’ in FGCU’s Wasmer Gallery (01-30-20)

Presence by Ran Adler opens in the Wasmer Art Gallery at Florida Gulf Coast University on January 30.

Ran Adler is a self-taught assemblage artist who employs various elements of nature as his medium which he wires, weaves and strings together into unique organic structures that serve as needed reminders of the staggering unpredictability and humbling power of nature lurking just outside. His horsetail reed, thorn and seedpod constructs don’t just shape the space in which they are exhibited. They open the mind the fragility, if not futility, of our pretentious efforts to control our physical environment. They underscore our overarching responsibility as stewards of the planet.

The harmonious transformation of chaos into ordered systems results from Adler’s meditative process. The often repetitive and rhythmic movements of threading, inscribing and assembling become a meditative or prayer-like state of mind from which remediation of external forces is understood and expressed in the work. That respectful, contemplative state transfers to those who have the good fortune to view his work.

Currently represented by Judith Liegeois Designs in Naples, Gardner Colby Gallery in Naples and Blackman Cruz in Los Angeles, Adler has exhibited widely in the United States in solo and group exhibitions. He is the artist in residence at Judith Liegeois in Naples and the guest artist at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Presence is sponsored by The Wasmer Family, Judith Liegeois Designs, Alice and Dean Fjelstul, Gene and Lee Seidler, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and WGCU Public Media.

The opening reception takes place from 5:00-7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 30 and will be accompanied by an Artist Talk and jazz combo recital.

The exhibition runs through February 27.

The Wasmer Gallery is located in the Arts Complex at Florida Gulf Coast University at 10501 FGCU Blvd. S. For more information, please telephone 239-590-1000 or visit https://www.fgcu.edu/artgalleries/currentseason/adler.

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Adler’s ‘Presence’ affords opportunity to cross-pollinate ideas across art forms

Each year the FGCU Art Galleries curates an exhibition with the goal of not only exhibiting the work of an outstanding artist, but of identifying an artist who is closely connected with Southwest Florida’s unique attributes. For 2020, that artist is Ran Adler, and his exhibition titled Presence opens in the Wasmer Gallery on January 30 with a 5:00-7:00 p.m. reception, Gallery Talk and jazz recital.

“This year’s artist, Ran Adler, comes to us with an established and deep connection to the natural environment of our area,” expounds FGCU Gallery Director John Loscuito. “Working in close proximity to campus from his studio in Naples, Florida provides the artist with an opportunity to engage inventive collaborations across multiple disciplines of FGCU.”

The Wasmer Art Gallery’s high ceiling inspired Adler to think of his work on a grand scale and to contemplate how his work might inspire others to engage public spaces. In the latter regard, Adler hopes that his installations help foster a new benefactor-motivated paradigm for the introduction of art into public spaces, an idea that City of Fort Myers Public Art Consultant Tom Hall amplifies in an essay he’s written to coincide with the exhibition.

Filling a space as large and expansive as the Wasmer Gallery is, admittedly, a tall order for any one artist. To help him actualize his vision for the space and maintain the incredible attention to detail that characterizes his body of work, Adler brought FGCU Art Major and Gallery Assistant Marcela Pulgarin into his studio last semester.  Pulgarin devoted countless hours to learning Adler’s craft and helping him produce the work guests will discover when they come to the gallery to view and be affected by Presence.

For this exhibition, Adler also invited to his studio Bower School of Music Instructor Brandon Robertson and the FGCU Jazz Combo to see the works in progress and to discuss how musicians could interpret the work. This visit resulted in new compositions to be performed as a concert in the Wasmer Art Gallery.

The Theatre Department also played a part in using Adler’s work to cross-pollinate ideas between art forms. In this regard, FGCU Theatre Professor Dan Bacalzo developed a course titled “Creating New Theatre” to integrate the exhibition into his students’ creative process, and they have developed original theatre pieces to be performed within Adler’s installation.

Judith Liegeois Designs opened their doors to support all of these efforts and the Wasmer Family stepped forward to support the exhibition and fund the acquisition of one of Adler’s works for the FGCU Permanent Collection.

“All of these generous contributions are a testimony to Southwest Florida’s support of the FGCU Art Galleries’ mission and to the quality of work Adler produces,” says Loscuito. “Thank you all for contributing to the cultural richness of Southwest Florida.”

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Divining the meaning of Ran Adler’s ‘Presence’

Presence opens in FGCU’s Wasmer Gallery with a 5:00-7:00 p.m. reception and gallery talk on Thursday, January 30. The exhibition contains work specially prepared not only for the show, but for the gallery space by assemblage artist Ran Adler.

There is a distinct and profound Zen-like quality to the works included in the exhibition. In fact, the very title of the show implicates the doctrine of anicca or impermanence and its corollary, living presently, in the moment.

The notion of impermanence (anicca) forms the bedrock for the Buddha’s teaching. On a grand or macro scale, the doctrine postulates that the universe is expanding and disintegrating in repetitive cycles throughout beginning-less time. On a physical plane, all beings, from people to micro-organisms, are mortal, subject to “being worn and rubbed away, to dissolution and disintegration.” For that matter, even metal and rocks are subject to decay through oxidation and the action of wind, water and sunlight. And on a mental or existential plane, every thought, emotion, smell, taste, sight and sound are transient. They arise and then pass out of existence like waves lapping on a sandy shore.

The Buddhist reaction to impermanence is presence, living with immediacy, being in the moment, neither clinging to the past nor worrying about the future. Regret, mourning, fear and anger all come from comparing the present moment with a past, future, or alternative moment. Moreover, clinging and craving, scanning and planning impedes our ability to see what is right in front of us, to savor our daily experiences.

Living authentically in the moment – or having presence – enables us to be more deeply in touch with the texture of our lives, the fine details, in which pleasure and meaning reside.

Adler’s constructs symbolize the impermanence of nature and signify the texture each of us can achieve by being present in our lives. In the former regard, Adler marshals a host of organic material as the building blocks of his expansive compositions. From horsetail rushes to mahogany seed pods, they are subject to decay, decomposition and degradation. But it is through his rhythmic, repetitive process of sorting, cutting, weaving, threading, burning and inscribing these materials into the large-scale pieces adorning the Wasmer Gallery walls that the prayer-like meditative state of presence is achieved. And through the operation of other cosmic principles, that state is transferred to Adler’s viewers, inducing them to  slow down,  pause and be in the moment as they contemplate the assemblages sprawling along the walls above, below and to either side of their POV.

Presence runs January 30 through February 27 in the Wasmer Gallery in the Arts Complex on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University. It’s not just a show you have to see. It’s a show you really have to feel.