Curated by Matt Moment

Featuring artists, Tim Davis Alanna Floreck, Daniel Giordano, Shaun Pierson, Anam Rani, Zander Raymond, John Bell Rush, and Luke Whittaker

The group exhibition Dirty Joke isn’t exactly funny, but contains certain ingredients useful in attempting humor: absurdity, repulsiveness, self-deprecation, surprise, awkwardness, double entendre, concealment, and revelation. While these qualities are not arranged according to the time-based, unfurling logic of a joke, they nonetheless have the power to effect a potent response. In works of photography, sculpture, collage, and trompe l'oeil painting, the eight featured artists call out to one another through a system of shared symbols: Anam Rami’s sculpture and Zander Raymond’s college show zippers undone. In Shaun Pierson’s photograph and Daniel Giordano’s self portraits, we confront obscure masks that might be read as jeering or menacing. Some artists tease with the prospect of bare feet; others leave piles of filth for them to step in. Balloons and houseflies float and flatten. And even if the punchline once it arrives, there is plenty of poetry to be found in the meantime.