METHOD & CONCEPT, 111 10th St South, Suite 112, announced a new mixedmedia group exhibition titled “Family + Semi-Precious” opening Thursday, Feb. 18. The exhibition will mark a convergence of the artists represented by METHOD & CONCEPT, encompassing work developed in recent years, as well as in direct response to their experiences of 2020.

Distinguished masters of their medium — Matthew Shlian, Debra Smith, Brett Harvey, Shizue Imai, Jamie Harris, Dylan Martinez, Carmelo Blandino, Chad Jensen, among others — will showcase their unique perspectives in contemporary art. The show will run through April 30. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, Feb. 18 from 5:30-8 p.m.

“Family + Semi-Precious” is an exhibition theme that emerged during the height of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. As quarantine removed many artists from their studios and forced many into isolation, it became clear to METHOD & CONCEPT that it had a duty to support its artists and provide a platform for the cultural exchange of ideas related to their shared experience. Family represents an unwitting kinship of creatives, innovators and content producers that, in place of their physical absence, is replaced with the tangible presence of their work. The resulting dialogue and emotional reverberation is palpable, and intertwined with the viewer’s own experience. “Family + Semi-Precious” seeks to create a common bond and cultural bridge to our shared universal existence.

Presented in METHOD & CONCEPT’s new gallery location, the works will be installed in curated vignettes to signify notions of connection and relatedness as a human family. A kinship between the artists’ work expresses significant contrasts, as well as harmonious similarities, highlighting visual art’s expression as a nonverbal means of communicating in this time of unprecedented uncertainty, isolation, gratitude and recalibration.

For example, during the early days of the pandemic, METHOD & CONCEPT’s Creative Director and Managing Partner Chad Jensen found himself isolated with only the tools and materials available in his studio. “I returned to my mold-making roots to explore the immediacy and transformative potential of plaster as a fine art medium,” he said. “I believe it embodies a tension between beauty, fragility, industry and architecture.” His work, alongside METHOD & CONCEPT’s roster of artists, reflects the most uncertain times of our generation — and the emotions, anger and fear that come with it.