Curated by Cory Oberndorfer.

Artists: Scott G. Brooks, David D'Orio, Marie Gardeski, Steven Jones, Katie Miller, and Paul Shortt.

The quickest way to destroy humor is to actually discuss humor itself. So instead, we to experience, relate, and enjoy humor. Often in a subtle way, occasionally in a gut-busting way, and sometimes we enjoy it much later than the action of the experience itself.

Humor in fine art can be an elusive thing, with a one-way interaction between the artist and viewer. The artist alone is responsible for the creation of an expectation and the violation of that same expectation. The artists of BEST MEDICINE each approach this in a unique way.

Scott G. Brooks challenges our expectation of mystical creatures with the everyday reality of our culture and elevates our pop culture icons into deities. David D’Orio plays with the ridiculous nature of his feeding devices built as a method to distribute a message to the masses. Marie Gardeski also illustrates surreal situations for the provider, from the postman to the businessman bringing home the bacon to the struggles of nurturing motherhood.

Steven Jones commits to the lengthy process of creating blunt puns in his own form of irony, providing weight to simple levity. Breaking apart the artifice of innocence, Katie Miller’s realism slowly reveals falsehoods held within. Meanwhile, Paul Shortt embodies the struggle of the earnest innocence of childhood contained inside his big man.

While no work of art tickles two funnybones in the same way, the effort itself is capable of fulfilling our need for release. In the end we hope that laughter is in fact the best medicine.

-Cory Oberndorfer