Mercury Project Presents Emptiness of a Certain Kind by artist Josh Welker

Artist Statement:
Emptiness of a Certain Kind is a collection of recent prints, drawings, and paintings. The title comes from an interview with the physicist Arthur Zajonc. He is speaking about what matter is as we get further and further down into the molecular level. I came across the interview fifteen years ago. The phrase has stuck with me and swims around in my imagination. My fascination and interest in all of the works included in this exhibition involve the possibility of a surfaces complete flatness and the possibility of it opening up into a field of depth. This flattening and expanding through space are kin to the Buddhist idea of emptiness-which is fullness-the wave is the ocean and the ocean the wave or the depth cannot exist without the surface. Either way one cannot exist without the other and neither have a separate existence or separate self. Moving through the experience of flatness into depth or vice-versa has always been an experience that I have pursued. On view through December 27, 2026. This event is free and open to the public.

Bio:
Josh is from St Louis, MO where he liked to get lost in the woods. He studied sculpture and theology there and after meeting Michelle moved to Austin where they both went to school. He earned his MFA there in 2008. Josh taught sculpture and ceramics for seven years in Indiana before relocating to San Antonio where they have felt at home for the past ten years. Josh teaches studio art at Keystone School to k-12 graders. He works and lives with his three kids, Fred, Melody, and Eden and his wife Michelle. @joshuagrantwelker

About Mercury Project: Mercury Project is a multifunctional creative space housing all forms of art and design. Mercury Project is a shared studio and gallery based in the South of San Antonio, Texas. Established by Antonia Richardson in 2014, Mercury Project is a staple in the city’s thriving contemporary art community.