Aaron Wilder

Aaron Wilder Art Space

My work is the work of a new art movement: self-proclaimed as Conditionalism. This new movement has been created with various ideals, including:

1. While Conditionalism has to be, by definition, contemporary, since it is taking place now, it is a Modernist art movement. Most artists recognize Modernism as dead, mutated, or irrelevant today, but modernity is continuous and is ever-changing. My work is more stylistically and ideologically similar to pre-1950 American and non-American Modern Art than to late American Modern or Post-Modern Art.

2. Conditionalism is the embodiment of moderatism in depicting subject matter. It is my view that art too naturalistic and art too abstract skew the purpose of the work and either devalue the message or keep the message inaccessible. Therefore, instead of work being polarized, visual delivery of themes uses abstraction, expressionism, symbolism, and other methods to place Conditionalist Art in a gray area.

3. The title is the most important part of the artwork as the only lasting impression an artist can inflict upon a viewer or the public reverie at large. Again, moderatism is used here. Titles of Conditionalist work will lie in a gray area between the poles of titles that solely explain what is already seen in the work and titles that number a work of art or leave it untitled.

4. Conditionalism contends that the point of art is to speak to people visually and provoke interactions with them. Whether a piece is personal, political, social commentary, or fictional, its purpose is to have individual contact with each viewer. Therefore, the artwork may mean different things to different people and evoke diverse reactions. This is the beauty of art and cannot be controlled by critics or the artist.

5. Conditionalism does not make distinctions as to what art is or is not. Anything self-proclaimed as art is recognized as such. Nothing more, nothing less. Any art form from prints to sculpture to writing to music to architecture can be Conditionalist.