The Perception Paradox

NAVA Contemporary is pleased to present The Perception Paradox, a group exhibition that invites viewers into a space where seeing is not always believing. Featuring work by John Dante Bianchi, David Burdeny, Kim Keever, Fernando Mastrangelo, Nik Shanlin, and William Wood, the show explores the seductive power of optical illusion in art—works that bend perspective, distort scale, and challenge the reliability of our senses. What appears fixed may shift, what seems flat may deepen, and what feels familiar may suddenly become uncertain.

Through color, pattern, and material manipulation, the artists in The Perception Paradox reveal how easily our comprehension can be influenced. Vision, often trusted as our most authoritative sense, becomes a playful and precarious guide. In confronting these illusions, the exhibition highlights a deeper truth: perception is not a passive act, but an active construction shaped by expectation, memory, and context. The Perception Paradox ultimately invites us to embrace uncertainty—to delight in the moment when the eye is fooled and the mind is awakened.

John Dante Bianchi's work exists between painting and sculpture. His panels are built of aluminum mounted on wood stretchers, often shaped into 3D geometries that conjure paper folding into itself. The flat texture of the paintings is attained through the application of multiple layers of acrylic paint, which are then sanded and reapplied in an intuitive, kinetic process.

David Burdeny's haunting and deeply evocative aerial photographs deconstruct the relationship between man and nature. Geometric patterns and amorphous, sinewy shapes create graceful and vibrant abstract compositions that belie a provocative narrative about man's impact on the natural world. The powerful interplay between color and light, coupled with a remarkable sense of spatial infinity, captures the transcendent experience of seeing nature as art.

Kim Keever (1955-2025) is an internationally acclaimed photographer. Trained as a thermal engineer, Keever constructs colorful large-scale abstractions by pouring paint into a 200 gallon tank of water in his studio. The resulting clouds of color are captured by a large-format digital camera as they swirl into different forms and diffuse themselves through the water.

Fernando Mastrangelo's striking sculptures occupy a fluid space at the convergence of art and design. The artist uses materials common to quotidian life but entirely atypical of fine art, including salt, coffee, sand, glass and cement. He then combines the raw materials with resin, and other industrial components, to create deeply textured and evocative works.

Nik Shanlin's work is the result of a singular creative process that melds elements of graphic design, computer programming and traditional painting. This approach is firmly rooted in the artist's background as a graphic designer, but visually draws from varied currents in abstract and modernist art. The textured, layered images invite a multiplicity of interpretations and possess a unique depth of field, at once flat and sculptural, which contributes to their alluring vibrancy.

William Wood tests the boundaries of painting through the use of unconventional media and techniques. He often combines atypical materials such as newsprint, cotton duck, house paint and gesso, with traditional acrylics, inks and oils, creating distinctive textures and a captivating visual style.