Solar Music / Lunar Revel: The Limits of the Material
Celestial imagery anchors a group show where artists and curator Lucy Liu reflect on the interplay of form, meaning, and perception
Abigail Leali / MutualArt
Aug 12, 2025
The art world might be more strictly Platonic today than it has ever been – perhaps more than artists themselves are inclined to accept. Try as I might, I struggle to think of another time in history when “form” and “matter” have been more completely and dogmatically separated than in the last century or so. As a culture, I worry that we have taken this idea to the point of absurdity.
I’ve made no secret of my concerns about the widening divide between popular or commercial art and its “fine” counterpart. It remains fashionable among the higher levels of the industry to deconstruct art into ever-more basic components – an enterprise that has often resulted less in an improved appreciation of what art is and far more often in a defeated admission of what it is not. Or, even worse, it has rejected definition altogether, renouncing not only thematic significance but also fundamental principles and techniques.
