Cynthia Byrnes Contemporary Art is thrilled to present Zeitgeist: Normal for Now. Reflecting on the unexpected challenges and victories of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Zeitgeist,” series acknowledges this moment of transition, and looks forward to the potential of the year ahead. Picking up where Then Everything Changed, leaves off, Normal for Now explores the intense and prolonged phase of transition that dominated the pandemic socially, medically, politically, culturally, emotionally and beyond. Featuring 7 artists working across a variety of media “Normal for Now” reflects on the tension between the quiet and noise of a year defined by the stillness of quarantine and the electricity of rapid and relentless change.

Drawing on a formalist perspective, which prioritizes an artworks aesthetic form over context and content, the work featured reflects on the previous year not by walking viewers through a catalog of events, but by provoking emotions now characteristic of 2020 and the COVID-19 Pandemic and giving viewers space to reflect on the events and emotions which shaped his or her individual experiences of the past year. “Zeitgeist,” is presented in three instalments, each reflecting on the progressive phases of our collective experiences with the pandemic. Normal for Now, considers this extended phase of adjustment and tentative sense of normalcy we have all cultivated out of necessity.