after / time gallery is pleased to present I am the distance, a dual exhibition featuring Colorado-based international artists, Marius Lehene and Aitor Lajarin-Encina.

Separately and collaboratively, a common point of scrutiny for both artists are the complexities inherent to the concept of perspective, in the literal sense and within broader interpretations. The sequential pictorial narrative of I am the distance follows a gradual revelation of existential suspense, a provocation of philosophical rumination amidst a tactile party for the gaze. In a world that grows increasingly image-dense, what is the meaning of existence in the absence of the human gaze?

Reflecting global histories of painting and popular image-making practices, Lajarin-Encina’s work echoes a diverse breadth of thematic and stylistic references including Baroque art, constructivism, satirical cartoons, and video games. Similarly, Lehene, too, introduces a convergence of personal cultural and creative influences - Romanian, American, and Indian - that engage in continual dialogue examining transience and discontinuity through interaction among porous layers that simultaneously conceal, reveal, protect, and expose.

Encouraging engagement in secondary reflection and epistemological inquiry into our relationships with representation and truth, each vignette presents an opportunity for seamless navigation through spatial layers as the eye moves farther and farther inward — into a boundless cerulean expanse, beyond intricate webs of lace. The image allows for separation from its origin while also revealing the negative space whence it emerges recursively as positive space.

www.mariuslehene.net / @marius_lehene

www.aitorlajarin.info / @aitorlajarin

Photodocumentation: Aaron Wessling / @singlefile_studio