We are, consequently, born with a body. Last year I knew nothing offers three distinct corners of conversation, presenting the challenges of utilizing one’s inherent nature of lust and autonomy within an autocratic social and personal governance. Here, a battle ensues to challenge the systems in place while solidifying a sense of proving one's selfhood, selflessness, and expressible existence. Inspired by Edward Rowland Sill’s poem, “The Fool’s Prayer,” Maxwell Runko’s bodies are bound by material collage, reflecting the contemporary jester in a dance of three. A play on submission and dominance, the figures contextualize the power dynamics our bodies endure under modern structures that seek sovereignty over our behavior, and the contemporary sedation we face in response. Autonomy becomes performative in a culture of surveillance, and modern digitization reworks selfness to a fictional replica. By addressing these systems, the jester has utility in representing a utopia, reconstituting the use of our bodies, and, ideally, invites the viewer to find a personal synergetic connection with the work. Xhiba’s paintings enter a conversation on love in an uncontrolled soreness. The scenes, furious and looming, offer a collage of vignettes of disembodied forms, authoritative figures, and motion. Her storytelling foregrounds a sense of lapsed time overcome by a battle with the physical body. Through this, Xhiba seeks to implement a divine body separate from our earthly design, begging the question: Do cells that attack our temple hold the same consciousness, dreams, or optic interest? Kuldeep Singh’s paintings offer a ratified view of intimacy. Contemplating the influence of sensuality and mischief, his works encourage the viewer to marry the fleeting scene with sacrality. Through his study of ancient Sanskrit texts, pertinently the 2nd century AD dramaturgical tome ‘Natyashastra,’ he implements a re-contextualization of forms that fall subject to queerness, compassion, and denial. His recent works present a keyhole, a yearning to identify closeness to the subject, and a voyeuristic view. Through sacrificing the reified subject, Singh welcomes you by and offers solace. A new day. Last year I knew nothing, presenting new and recent works by Max Runko, Kuldeep Singh, and Xhiba, will be on view through May 4. For more information, visuals, or a priced checklist, please contact general@kaleidoscopestudios.net