Curious Matter, the exquisite Jersey City gallery, has joined Proteus Gowanus in the search for Paradise, mounting a parallel exhibit, Naming the Animals, featuring 37 artists.

The opening reception for Curious Matter’s exhibition is Sunday, April 3, 3-6 pm. The gallery is located at 272 Fifth Ave, Jersey City, NJ.

Moreover, on Friday, April 16, at the opening reception for the third and final Proteus Gowanus Paradise exhibition, Curious Matter will curate an exhibition within our exhibition on the Proteus Gowanus bookshelf.

The Backstory: As we were planning the third and final chapter of Paradise, our friends at Curious Matter proposed a collaboration: they would install an exhibit within our exhibit which would focus on a most curious event that took place within the walls of Paradise: the naming of the animals.

Myth says that naming the animals is an obligation assigned to humankind at the creation and it is one that has never ceased to demand attention: the task of naming, ordering, cataloging, dividing, pairing, discerning, describing, speaking…. Indeed, Paradise itself, where naming first began, was a place divided and separated, which is why its beatific presence bedevils us. As the exhibitions at Proteus Gowanus and Curious Matter attest, these paradisiacal topics have a light and a dark side.

We are thrilled to be joined in this endeavor by the fine-tuned sensibility of Curious Matter and welcome the opportunity to harness Jersey City to the Gowanus in the never-ending search for Paradise.