Kit Palencar
The left and right sides of the brain—often accepted as separate domains—merge in these works to form a unified, complex narrative about our existence and inevitable mortality. While the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for our reasoning, order, and logic, the right hemisphere is responsible for our creativity, emotion, and expression. These works aims to bridge this connection through our inevitable return to nature. As God told Adam, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return”. Although I’m much more interested in the right side and its ability to embrace ambiguity, abstractness, and intuition.
Through the use of contrasting blends of shapely abstraction and carefully rendered representation, I encourage viewers to confront the tension of our human nature against the scientific definitions of what nature is. Nature does not resist its cycles; it embraces them with grace and inevitability. Through these paintings and drawings, I aim to question how we, as conscious beings, engage with our own impermanence. Can the cerebral and the organic find harmony? This exhibition invites viewers to witness that tension, and perhaps, to feel at home in it.
As we move through the seasons, especially from winter into spring, we see new growth. Yet that growth rises from the decay of the season before. This balance is much like the balance of our brain, our minds and our consciousnesses. Rather than treating either side of the brain as different, by merging these neurological polarities with natural themes of transformation and impermanence, I hope to create a space for reflection on how we think, how we feel, and ultimately, how we live and die. In the brain, as in nature, duality is not division—it is balance.
ARTIST BIO:
Born in 1992, Kit Palencar is a northeast Ohio-based artist who currently serves as the Exhibitions Manager at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center. As a practicing artist of over fifteen years, he has exhibited in galleries across the region and has collectors from around the globe. Palencar has taught foundation drawing and life drawing courses at his alma maters University of Akron, where he earned a bachelor’s in fine arts, and Kent State University, where he received a master’s in fine arts. He also teaches visual art aesthetics courses through Ashland University’s Correctional Education program. Palencar currently teaches painting and drawing courses at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.
