CEVIN SOLING: WE’VE BECOME WHAT WE PARODY
The Salem Art Gallery
July 7–September 19, 2021
Artist, writer, filmmaker, musician, and academic, Cevin Soling, presents his first solo-exhibition, We’ve Become What We Parody, at the Salem Art Gallery. Soling presents works that bend the familiar to create an alternate world that exposes the undercurrents of hypocrisy and violence that persist beneath everyday objects' venire. The works are intended to generate a conflicted response of both horror and humor where the humor may feel guilty or inappropriate. The works serve as critiques of both ourselves and our culture designed to prompt unsettling questions. Soling asks us to investigate: What kind of world have we created? What do we value, and what do we want to achieve? How do we suppress thoughts of our eventual demise and the specter of violence that surrounds us?
Cevin Soling's creative vision emerged fully formed at the age of eight when he discovered that his resentment for abusive authority could be expressed through his artwork. As a polymath and autodidact, Soling taught himself how to play various musical instruments, music production and engineering, filmmaking, electronics design, philosophy, and various other disciplines.
His creations span a broad spectrum of mediums, but they all reflect his penchant to produce works that challenge his audience. Cevin’s artistic and academic work are ultimately about transcendence. Between his musical, artistic, and film projects, Soling has been featured on MTV, HBO, BBC, Comedy Central, The Discovery Channel, and TLC, among others.
