High Anxiety, an exhibition of contemporary art from the Collection of Hedy Fischer and Randy Shull examines our unstable times through a multiplicity of artistic positions and voices. High Anxiety brings new perspectives to bear on themes such as identity, race, forced migration, politics, technology, pandemics and corporate culture.

The exhibition presents a number of international artists, whose work speaks directly to our anxiety-ridden times. Hailing from countries as diverse as Iran, South Africa, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica and the United States, the artists work from their own stories and experiences, examining current and timeless issues through a universal yet highly personal lens.

The twenty-one artists in High Anxiety have responded to this angst and channeled it into the sculptures, paintings, photographs, and videos that reflect the tension humming in the background in all our lives. Colombian artist Mateo Lopez borrows a font designed by Josef Albers to spell out and abstract the word “Truth”, garbling it beyond recognition in his hybrid painting. Trenton Doyle Hancock reminds us all of the persistent lies we are being told by our leadership in his massive painting Bad Promise, as the truth slips through the giant, extended hand. Heightened by our accelerated digital existence, the scope and detail of our anxiety has reached new proportions around the globe. Nari Ward channels the powerful forces at work in the Black Lives Matter movement with his large-scale clenched fist fashioned out of shoelaces and Rashid Johnson shows us what he feels like to be a Black man living in the United States.

As we write this, a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus is causing anxiety world-wide with people not able to go to work, to school, to the gym, to restaurants or to any gatherings. People are either voluntarily or legally self-isolating. Amanda Ross-Ho’s blue glove comments on both her studio practice and reminds us of our need for hygiene. Mexican photographer Yolanda Andrade captures all of us mirrored in life as in death, a reality that seems more impending than ever before.

Hedy Fischer + Randy Shull