May 14- June 5, 2011
Opening reception Saturday May 14th, 6-10pm
Room 1:
Taney Roniger
Cellular Automata
Taney Roniger, Cellular Automata Series (Scape #7), oil and synthetic polymer on canvas, 40” x 40", 2011
"This series of paintings and works on paper is inspired by a species of computer-generated images known as cellular automata. Used principally by scientists as a way of visualizing dynamic processes, cellular automata are generated when sets of rules—often quite simple in nature—are fed into powerful computers and allowed to run through millions of iterations at high speeds, the whole process being enacted visually on the screen. As the process unfolds, the arrays of “cells” (simple black and white squares) morph into dense fields with complex patterns and configurations that cannot have been foreseen by the initial input. Because of these emergent properties—the strange features that appear wholly unpredicted by the rules—and what they reveal about the structure of complexity and chaos, these images are used in the study of systems (biological, ecological, social, etc.).
At the work’s conceptual core are questions about the relationship between the analog world—the continuous, seemingly-unbroken world we experience with our senses—and the digital world presented to us by computers. Can computer models, with their language of separate, discrete units (pixels, binary numbers, etc.), accurately reflect the real world—or is there a fundamental gap between the digital and the real, the virtual and the actual, that can never be closed? In my paintings, the tensions between the discrete marks that make up the patterns and configurations and the seamless, unbroken ground reflect this concern."
-Excerpt from Taney Roniger's statement on Cellular Automata.
Room 2:
Claire Rau
Man up
Through installation, I explore aspects of borders and peripheries. Man up revolves about a reinterpretation of objects or phenomena associated with struggle zones, the burden of gender, and the consequences of actions.
A member of the Front, Claire Rau was born in Sandusky, Ohio and raised in northeast Tennessee. She completed her graduate work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and presently teaches foundations at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She is the recipient of several awards and residencies, while continuing to build upon an extensive exhibition record in the US and internationally.
clairejanerau.com
Rooms 3 & 4:
Leah Bailis & Andrew Suggs
Fire
At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet.
Fire is a new collaborative effort by Leah Bailis and Andrew Suggs that features sculpture and a video installation. The work takes as a starting point two pop songs: Bruce Springsteen's “I'm On Fire” and The Pointer Sisters' “Fire.” Bailis and Suggs have cast themselves as karoke singers who reframe these gendered ballads in a four-channel video installation that layers their performances into a cacophonous sound/image piece. In addition, a large sculptural work will be on view that features a mirrored asteroid-shaped form atop a bed, and a fire poker.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Leah Bailis received her MFA from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2005 and her BA in Film from Bard College in 1998. She attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was a resident artist at the Bemis Center of Contemporary Art and the Vermont Studio Center. Bailis has exhibited her work around the country, including Arcadia University Art Gallery (Glenside, PA), Lump Gallery (Raleigh, NC), Branch Gallery (Carrboro, NC), and Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (Philadelphia, PA). She was a 2010 West Prize finalist. She currently works and lives in Philadelphia.
leahbailis.com
Born in Newport, Tennessee, Andrew Suggs received his AB from Harvard University in 2005. Suggs has exhibited his work around the country, including Lump Gallery (Raleigh, NC), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA), Repetti Gallery (Long Island City, NY), The Galleries at Moore (Philadelphia, PA), Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), ThreeWalls (Chicago, IL), Publico Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), and Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA). He currently works and lives in Philadelphia, where he is the Executive Director of Vox Populi, and an occasional writer and curator.
andrewsuggs.com