Contemporary art speaks directly to the important questions of our time, as well as to the changing landscape of American identity. It is both a mirror of contemporary society and a window through with we view and deepen our understanding of life as it exists today. Who are today's artists? What are they thinking about? How do they describe their work? Why do they do what they do?

Here are some of the questions addressed in the exhibition: ART:21 Art in the Twenty-First Century. This show presents the artists without interpretive mediation through large presentations of their work. If the unknown is the space in which creativity flourishes, This exhibit desires to bring it forward, illuminate it for others, and revel in it. This is ART:21's work?to reveal the existence of those regions which all the artists traverse, forging paths of exploration and study that take them into uncharted realms of creativity. By revealing the existence of those unknown territories, inhabited by all creative thinkers,I hope to educate, delight, and to provoke the viewers.

It is difficult to imagine that anyone works harder than an artist. This?the non-stop work, accumulation of information, concentration, the need to be in the studio?is a continuing mini-theme for ART:21. Most artists experience intuitive leaps of recognition and connection, and find new ideas through introspection and research in many fields beyond art, although the art of the past remains a profound resource.

One might say that in order to draw, you have to learn how to see first. Well, what about making drawings and other works of art about areas, about zones and realms that you CANNOT see, about areas hidden from view, about secret realms and invisible places? This is what many of these artists have in common: they are attempting to bring to light and view things that were previously unseen.

One might say that in order to draw, you have to learn how to see first. Well, what about making drawings and other works of art about areas, about zones and realms that you CANNOT see, about areas hidden from view, about secret realms and invisible places? This is what many of these artists have in common: they are attempting to bring to light and view things that were previously unseen.