On view: June 9 - July 8, 2018 Second Saturday Reception: June 9, 6-10pm Daily hours: Tuesday through Sunday 12-5 The Republic of Dark is a body of work that began as an exploration of internal conflict, the initial sketches being figures in opposition to one another as surrogates of internal duels. But the concepts became more prescient and the figures, surrogates for the struggle between family members and friends within a divided nation. I was blindsided by what I felt was an existential threat with the election of Donald Trump. It seems as though our empire is in its twilight. Our country is conflicted and at a point of what seems like irreconcilable differences. Our own Hellenistic Period is upon us. Many of the plates borrow from Hellenistic tropes, or rather the Roman copying of them. Figures in roles of dominance and subordination, themes of conflict and death, psychological splits within a frame, or a general sense of tension and apprehension. The plates are fragmentary, cut and punctured, tarnished and corroded. -Andrew Au