Really. refers to realities expressed by artists that are based on a shared reality (that which is real), but that has also been filtered through the artist. These new original worlds are Really.

The artists included in Really. are interested in work that takes viewers on flights of fancy and contributes new imagery to art history. They are of a generation of primarily New York based artists who embraced what was once called “alternative”—the unpopular, fringe, discarded, and dismissed. They became artists because they believed art to be a personal intellectual pursuit, regardless of if anyone is looking or liking. Really. means being interested in expanding the brain instead of the brand.

For Essenhigh and McGinness, Really. is also a way, linguistically, to assert and reinforce sincerity, as in, “Thank you. Really.” And, Really. is also “really?!”, in response to much of what is in the landscape of contemporary art today.