Definite:Indefinite, an exhibition juxtaposing large-scale drawings by two artists, is the fruition of a two-year artistic and critical conversation between its creators. At the center of that conversation were the means and meaning of realism and abstraction as played out in our own work. While neither of us has an exclusive history of realism or abstraction, each of us is known for one. Each is intrigued and energized by the work of the other. Michael is enthralled by the central human subject of Kat’s work, and by her placing that powerful subject in such a sensuous environment of liquid and light. Kat is struck by the meticulous energy of Michael’s white on black mark-making, its formal structure and, at times, the very dissolving of that structure.

A literary critic coined a metaphor for art and artist existing before and after Romanticism. Before, they were a mirror reflecting the world. After, they became a lamp radiating its meaning outward into the world. We have hardly come up with universal definitions of “realism” or “abstraction;” but we have deepened our own exploration of how each partakes of the other, how each is both mirror and lamp.

Michael Hachey and Kat O’Connor