Nolan Oswald Dennis, Demonstrations at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

 by Patricia Frischer

detail

This exhibition by  Nolan Oswald Dennis, Demonstrations at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library and the commissioners of it i.e.  INSITE are thinking on multiple levels. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the labels on the wall, but you are actually given permission in the notes to make your own decisions about the works on view.

The globe drawing and sculpture makes a point of showing that world views are endlessly varied and should be examined from all sorts of perspectives. Missing, lonely, sold, alien worlds at all times of the day, night, month, year. We are invited to take strings of words and rearrange them in all sorts of combinations so they connect and overlaps all these views.

It is easy to be intrigued by the digitally printed rocks displayed as a “Black Earth Library” on the shelving stretched from corner to corner of the gallery space. Watching one of the rocks being printed in real time brings home the synthetic quality of first impressions. Even the large rock at the entrance is a faux printed bean bag…a place to listen and contemplate. But these rocks represent those gather from all over the world. The display Isivivane, has been shown as part of INSITE Commonplaces in Johannesburg, Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Swiss Institute in New York; and Gasworks in London. The artist Nolan Oswald Dennis was born in Zambia now based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The concept of wounds is examined. Wounds cause damage. You recover but you are changed. The world is continually being wounded, but although it may or may not recover, it does change and sometimes adapts. The grief of a loss we feel when wounded never goes away, but is integrated into who we are. 

The closing of the exhibition on January 17 will be celebrated with the presentation of INSITE Journal__08: Reverse Forward and All at Once. The publication comprises documentation and essays related to the INSITE Commonplaces project curated by Gabi Ngcobo in Johannesburg, with commissioned work by participating artists Nyakallo Maleke and Nolan Oswald Dennis. Commonplaces is a curatorial platform established in 2021 for producing work with artists and communities commissioned locally in different regions of the world.

Nolan Oswald Dennis:  Demonstrations
Octo 24, 2025 until Jan 17, 2026
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Joseph Clayes III and Carolyn Yorston-Wellcome Rotunda Galleries
1008 Wall Street, La Jolla, CA 92037
Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.