Heart Featuring aj jaeger, Cecilia Stelini, Pedie Wolfond and a work by Jim Dine  February 5 – March 19, 2023   Opening Reception & Royal High Tea - 2-5 PM, Saturday, February 5, 2023

Although the origin is unclear, one of the first known heart symbols was found on a Roman coin depicting the seed of a silphium plant. Silphium was employed as a spice or herbal medicine where it was touted as both a form of birth control and as a protective healer and was so used that it became extinct. Ivy leaves or the leaves of the waterlily have also been cited as the first heart images along with a myriad of notions around breasts, the head of the penis and buttocks. The heart as an organ was accurately described by Aristotle (384-322 BC) as two chambers linked, folding over each other. This model can be extrapolated into the heart shape we know today. Aristotle also first knowledged that the accurate functioning of the heart is the very basis for on-going life. What of the equation between the heart and love, that most esteemed of emotions, manifest in a variety of forms between humans. In the twelfth century the Sacred Heart began to appear in art, often flaming, shining with divine light and encircled by thorns which indicated the Divine Passion of Christ. Many early images while being based on the physical heart became stylized more akin to the heart shape of today. The literature on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, refers to the inner life of Mary, her joys and sorrows, virtues and hidden perfections which manifested as virginal love, motherly love, and a boundless love for all mankind. Extrapolated versions of heart iconography are now commonplace from the relentless emojis that pepper messages today to the ubiquitous joys and pressures of Valentine Day.  But ‘love for all mankind’ as a guiding social, philosophical or political principle seems to have been demoted. The personal drive for love as in friendship, family love or the ‘love’ desired in coupling has remained a constant goal, partially as a form of survival, but somewhere in the move from a religious to a secular state the idea of love for all mankind has been misplaced – as Tina Turner sang “What’s love but a second-hand emotion”. Yet the heart is still deemed worthy of artistic attention although it has become banal, pop and somewhat common, strewn across the internet, merchandise and graphics. Easily drawn by young and old, the heart is a depiction of a ‘good feeling’. The heart as a form was also eschewed by artists for many years as ‘too cute’ until Jim Dine, muscly abstract painter and self-described romantic, used the symbol as a template for exploring colour, texture, composition – tools of the trade – and unavoidably association with the implied meaning and graphic relief of the commonly understood symbol. Then there is the other side to Heart - the wounds and scars. Bonaventure wrote: "Who is there who would not love this wounded heart?”. Just as the loss of valentine love can create a break in spirit, the sense of life-giving, growth and love associated with the steady pumping of blood, miraculous as it is, also contains the opposite - the cessation of the heart’s functions and ultimately, death.  The significance of the heart shape is, indeed, all encompassing. This simplified form has been adopted by religion, the arts and science. It continues to resonate as witnessed by these works, based on the HEART as symbol, organ, and a stand-in for the word ‘love’.