Octopus Meditations: Distant Time to Lonely Now 2021 31x21

Year2021

Hand SignedLower Right 

Condition Excellent 

Framed with PlexiglassWhite Frame w/ Archival Matting 

Purchased fromArtist 2021 

Provenance / HistoryThis work encapsulates the study of Octopus consciousness. It is a contemplation of when what became humans separated from what became Octopus on the evolutionary tree some 650 million years ago...it asks questions about the nature of perception in a watery environment as opposed to an atmospheric environment....one neuropsychologist suggests there is evidence to indicate that consciousness evolved as a mechanism to make us feel that life was worth living...in other words, "sentience" ... "Thomas Reid, the 18th century philosopher made an influential distinction between perception and sensation. Perception, he wrote registers information about objects in the external world: sensation is the subjective feeling that accompanies perceptions and because we encounter sensations and perceptions simultaneously, we conflate them." (Nick Romero, 3/15/23, The New Yorker). In some respects this is the beginning of seeking aesthetic connectivity and purposeful action, as in making a work imbued with meaning. 

Story / Additional InfoIn 2018, Kerns completed a series of works entitled the "Octopus Meditations". This work advances the visual exploration of perception and sentience as a mechanism of thought. Art making engages the physical body's reaction to imagery, especially marks and images made with strong gesture and emotive color. 

Certificate of AuthenticityArt Brokerage 

LID159927

Ed Kerns - United States

Art Brokerage: Ed Kerns American Abstract Expressionist Artist: b. 1945. Ed Kerns (February 22, 1945) is an American abstract artist and educator. Kerns studied with the noted Abstract-Expressionist painter, Grace Hartigan and through the elder artist came to know and work with many artists of that generation including, Phillip Guston, Willem de Kooning, James Brooks, Ernest Briggs, Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis. Born in 1945 in Richmond, Virginia, Kerns started painting at a young age. He attended the Richmond Professional Institute, receiving his BFA in 1967. He went on to the Maryland Institute, where he studied with painter Grace Hartigan. Here, Kerns received the Hoffberger Fellowship and graduated with an MFA in 1969. Kerns first gained exposure in 1972, when he was commissioned by art collector Larry Aldrich to paint 100 paintings over the course of the year as gifts.That same year, Kerns had his first solo art show at the AM Sachs Gallery in New York. Over the course of the 1970s and 80s, Kerns formed a close partnership with the Rosa Esman Gallery and exhibited ten solo shows there. Of his work in the late 1970s and early 80s, gallery coordinator Judith Stein says, "He works slowly, creating no more than ten large paintings a year. His media are acrylic, sand, and thread, the last used to stitch together sections of canvas. Often plywood or upsom board is used as support." Listings wanted.