“Digital Vision” exhibition blurs the line between futuristic and traditional media
The Scarlet & Black
Jane Hoffman
February 5, 2022
When museumgoers cross the gallery threshold for “Digital Vision,” the newest exhibition at the Grinnell College Museum of Art (GCMoA), they are met by a hypnotic display of lights rippling in infrared, an experience immediately delivering on the apparent theme of the show.
Moments later, however, they see pieces that evoke a more “traditional” gallery setting, arriving in front of paintings, photographs and elaborate sculptures hung from the ceiling. Upon further examination, these apparent contrasts fade away as the role of technology in each piece is revealed.
“This exhibition is about broadening our vision [of art] to include both digital and analog,” said Susan Baley, director of the GCMoA, who helped open the exhibit on Jan. 28.
The exhibit, planned in collaboration with former GCMoA director Lesley Wright, was originally proposed as a showcase of Grinnell art professor Matthew Kluber’s artwork, in which he codes luminous, undulating videos and projects them onto paintings. The result is a dreamlike, intricate and ephemeral exploration of art’s new frontier, made only more impressive by how the works engage and contrast with one another.
As the planning process continued, Kluber invited six other artists that utilize digital tools in their creative processes to participate in the exhibit. At the museum, viewers can also see pieces by Bill Albertini, Kate Petley, John Pomara, John F. Simon Jr., Anne Spalter and Jody Zellen.
Throughout the semester, students will have the chance to hear the creators discuss their art and processes through the Artists@Grinnell program. The artists will present in pairs, a nod to the centrality of how the works themselves are “in conversation with one another,” said Baley.
All featured artists attended school and began their careers before the advent of technology that now plays a primary role in their featured work. Within this context, the exhibit ultimately depicts a movement in transition, featuring artists who have integrated technology to a greater extent as both their careers and technical innovation at large have progressed. Kluber shared how the proliferation of “very small and very reliable” computers not only opened the door for new projects, but also expanded opportunities for bringing the works into museum and home settings.
Although visitors are immediately greeted by the neon waves of Kluber’s paintings, a stroll through the gallery also reveals works that are not overtly identifiable as high-tech pieces, such as Bill Albertini’s “Save As,” a set of sculptures made up of nested, twisting bronze and stainless-steel pieces.
Diving into Albertini’s process, however, reveals a technologically sophisticated technique: Albertini models the pieces using an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and produces them with a 3-D printer. In an interview, Albertini raised a common refrain for the participating artists: digital artwork allows creators to experiment with the nature of time.
In “Save As,” Albertini explained that his process of drafting, saving and returning to the different pieces in “Save As” mimicked the rhythm of a “stop-frame animation, in which each iteration changes but offers the opportunity to return to your draft and begin working again.”
Artist John Simon Fraser Jr. also engages with temporality in his works. His pieces exemplify the duality of digital artwork that is rendered and saved in code, but manifests in a display of “always changing, never-repeating patterns” upon screens nestled within intricate and colorful frames.
In an increasingly hurried world, it is easy to dismiss technology as a distraction that pulls us away from absorbing the transitory. “Digital Vision” not only challenges that assumption, but provides a canvas upon which to marvel at the fleeting.
Associated Artist
Associated News
-
October 5, 2020
Press Release - John F. Simon, Jr. “Drawing Air” -
June 8, 2019
Paths and Loops: Automatic Drawings by John F. Simon, Jr.
Hilliard Museum
June 8 , 2019 -
November 14, 2018
John F. Simon Jr. Interacts with Unfolding Object, His Pioneering Web-Based Artwork
Guggenheim Museum
November 14, 2018 -
November 8, 2018
The Browser: At the Whitney, ‘Programmed’ Piquantly Draws Out Connections Between TV and the Internet
ArtNews
November 8, 2018
Alex Greenberger -
November 2, 2018
Matthew Kluber No Place Like Utopia
GalleriesNow.Net, 11/02/2018
-
October 29, 2018
Matthew Kluber
Wall Street International Magazine, 10/29/2018
-
October 19, 2018
Matthew Kluber - No Place Like Utopia
NY Art Beat, 10/19/2018
-
October 16, 2018
Press Release - Matthew Kluber 'No Place Like Utopia' -
September 28, 2018
Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018Whitney Museum of American Art
September 28, 2018 -
March 26, 2018
Check out Matthew Kluber's artwork
VoyageLA.com, 03/26/2018
-
January 24, 2018
Painting exhibition to showcase wide-ranging survey of contemporary painting
Business North, 01/24/2018
-
September 5, 2017
VIRTUAL VIEWS: DIGITAL ART FROM THE THOMA FOUNDATION -
January 25, 2017
Line Forms Here
The Reader, 01/25/2017
Janet L. Farber
-
November 2, 2016
Why Pioneer Software Artist John F. Simon, Jr., Starts Every Day with Meditation and Drawing
Tricycle.org
November 2, 2016
Melissa Shaw-Smith -
April 21, 2016
Art + World | Dallas Art Fair
Pin + Stripe, 04/21/2016
Christi
-
January 8, 2016
Tech Art steals the show at Miami Art Week 2015
Cartwheel Art
January 8, 2016
Michelle Berc -
May 28, 2015
Giant video to light up Ingersoll building
Des Moines Register, 05/28/2015
Michael Morain
-
August 19, 2014
John F. Simon, Jr.: Creative Process -
October 17, 2013
ARTIST’S TALK: JOHN F. SIMON JR. POSTED ON OCTOBER 22, 2013 BY EXPERIMENT STATION