This exhibition aims to emphasize the experiential and multi-sensory dimensions of art rather than its visual and aesthetic aspects. In this respect, all the works featured in the exhibit seek to engage the viewers in an experience that goes beyond sheer visual perception; an experience that is primarily bodily and pre-reflective, involving environmental space and body-movement, as well as other senses such as touch, smell, and sound. The participating artists—Jin Soo Kim, Wolfgang Laib, Ernesto Neto, Valeska Soares, and Marisa Telleria-Diez—each engage different sense-perceptions and raise the question of how meaning derives from sensory experience. By doing so, they reveal in their works pre-verbal, sensual meaning that operates via affection rather than cognition, in a domain of (pre)consciousness rather than rationalization, or, as French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty suggests, "before reflection begins...."

Jin Soo Kim was born in 1950 in Seoul, Korea, where she studied nursing at Seoul National University while teaching herself the basics of sculpture. In 1974 she moved to the U.S. She studied at Western Illinois University in Macomb and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1983. Presently, she teaches at the SAIC and lives and works in Evanston, IL.

Jin Soo Kim is the recipient of numerous grants, awards, and residencies, including an Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (1999); Illinois Art Council Individual Artists Fellowship (1984-88), Awards in the Visual Arts 5 (1985); and National Endowment for the Arts (1984). Her work has been exhibited at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA, and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL (2001); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (1995, 1988); High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GE (1994); Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY (1993); and The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (1992), among other venues. Most recently she completed a permanent sculpture project at Xiadu Sculpture Park in Yangqing, Beiging, China.

Wolfgang Laib was born in 1950 in Metzingen, a small town in southern Germany; he lives and works in southern Germany. After becoming an M.D. in 1974, Laib turned to art as a way of reconnecting with nature. Since then, he has worked exclusively as an artist, creating works that incorporate natural elements—such as milk, marble, pollen, rice, and beeswax—which reflect his profound interest in nature and its organic process, as well as in Eastern and Western philosophies.

Laib's work has been shown throughout the world, including exhibitions at the Carre d'art, Musee d'art contemporain de Nimes, France (1999); the Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and Sperone Westwater, NY (1998); Galerie Konrad Fischer, Dusseldorf, Germany (1996); and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (1993). A major retrospective of his work opened in the fall of 2000 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. It has traveled to the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AR; and will continue at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA, and the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, where he attended the Escola de Artes Visuais Pargua Lage and Museu de Arte Modern. One of the leading contemporary artists of Latin America, Neto continues to live and work in Rio and is best known for sculptural installations that explore architectural space and the spectator's experience of that space.

His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including SITE, Santa Fe, NM, and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2000); the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, TX, and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (1999); the Sidney Biennial in Sidney, Australia, and XXIV Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil (1998). He had two solo shows in Europe in 2001—at the Centro per Le Arti Contemporanee in Rome, Italy, and the Kolnisher Kunstverein in Cologne, Germany—and his work was included in the 49th Venice Biennial. He has had three solo exhibitions at Tanya Bonakdar, NY. In 2002 Neto's work will be featured in the Directions series at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Valeska Soares was born in 1957 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Trained as an architect at the Universidade Santa Ursula in Rio de Janiero, she continued her graduate studies in art and architecture at PUC in Rio and later at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn and is a candidate for Doctor of Arts, School of Education, New York University.

Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions, such as Elusive Paradise at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Insite 2000, San Diego/Tijuana; Greater New York at P.S.1 Museum, New York, NY (2000); XXIV Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo, Brazil (1998); and You are here at the Royal College of Art, London (1997), to name just a few. A solo exhibition will be mounted at LiebmanMagnam, NY, in 2002. She received the John Simon Memorial Fellowship in 1996, the CAPES—a fellowship from a Ministry of Education, Brazil—in 1991; and the FIAT Award for the Visual Arts in 1990.