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Constants | Emily Somoskey


In Constants, a series of mixed media paintings navigate the unseen forces that structure our reality—the immutable laws and hidden mechanisms that govern movement, perception, and existence itself. Drawing inspiration from physics diagrams and elements of everyday life, the works in this exhibition transform abstract equations and scientific notations into layered visual narratives, bridging the empirical with the intuitive. Through the use of collage fragments—images from magazines, technical schematics, and found materials—each piece introduces moments of rupture and reinterpretation. These fragments, embedded within layers of paint and mark-making, suggest the evolving nature of knowledge and our human existence through an accumulation of observations, revisions, and discoveries.

As a body of work, these paintings are rooted in an exploration of constants and variables. Constants—such as the speed of light, gravitational pull, or the structure of a mathematical equation—anchor our understanding of the universe, providing stability and predictability. Variables, by contrast, introduce flux, possibility, and transformation. These paintings embrace the tension between the fixed and the fluid, questioning whether the frameworks we rely on are as immutable as they seem. Within these paintings, symbolic representations of motion, gravity, and energy become marks of inquiry rather than absolute truths. Transparency and texture obscure and reveal, mirroring the paradox of scientific certainty—that behind every fundamental constant lies a deeper unknown.

Constants invites viewers to consider the invisible structures that shape their world. What remains unchanged, and what is always in motion? Do we decipher reality, or do we construct it? In the interplay of line, color, material, and fragment, the exhibition offers a meditation on what it means to anchor ourselves in a universe of infinite complexity.