SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Romer Young Gallery will present its third solo exhibition with Bay Area artist Amanda Curreri. As a way to address contemporary violence, Curreri transforms the gallery into The Aunque – a space of possibility, a space of the 'even though'. The Aunque represents an alternative to the predominant space, one that acts as an irreverent reflection on power and desire, opposing it with a spirit of hope and optimism.

Beginning with the titular language shift from dominant English to Spanish, Curreri’s work implicates itself and the viewer in acts of “reading.” The phrase "Aunque, violencia es total" entered Curreri's head like a mantra while on a long-distance run. “I was training for a race and was at a point in the training where the runs were longer than I'd ever run before. Each run would blow my mind - part euphoria, part exhaustion, and my head space completely expanded during the runs.” Highlighting the meditative state achieved through physical and sensory experience, Curreri insists on an equivalence between body knowledge and cerebral understanding as a crucial tool of negotiating identity.

This work began with an attempt to present conflict and engender conversations about reflection, instigation, desire, and healing. Within the AUNQUE are paintings, sculptures, schematic works on paper, and video that give form to Curreri’s ideas via different languages. Curreri works in response to ideas of violence, gender based inequality, capitalism, conformism, but ultimately privileges non-linguistic communication - color, form, physical experience – to express these.

"Behind the hypnotic grimace of official pacification there is a war being waged... Retaking the offensive for our side is a matter of making the battlefield manifest." – Tiqqun