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6/3/2007

The Optical Edge

Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York

Pratt Manhattan Gallery’s latest exhibition, “The Optical Edge” is sure to be one of New York City’s most innovative and provocative shows of the season. Curated by internationally renowned artist, critic, historian and author, Robert C. Morgan, Ph.D., “The Optical Edge”, surveys four decades and two generations of painters whose experimentations with color, light and form have helped shape the influential Optical Art Movement beyond its early interpretations in the 1960s. A full-color catalog with essay by the curator will be available.

“The Optical Edge” exhibition will guide gallery visitors through the historical evolution of optical painting from its emergence in the early 1960s to the present, as a serious mode of painterly investigation that exceeds the limits of popular culture. The exhibition is one of several new international exhibitions in Europe and the United States signaling a resurgence of interest in optical painting and the significance of the Op Art Movement. During February, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt in Germany will be presenting an exhibition entitled, “Op Art” and The Columbus Museum of Art will be presenting the first major survey exhibition on Optical Art in over 25 years, “Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s,” a major survey exhibition.

Exibit to Showcase the Art of World Renowned Artists Including Victor Vasarely, Josef Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Sanford Wurmfeld, Rakuko Naito, Soonja Han, Ryszard Wasko, and Julian Stanczak

“The Optical Edge” exhibition is organized into three sections:

• The first section represents a selection of artwork by five artists who were included in The Museum of Modern Art, New York’s 1965 seminal exhibition, “The Responsive Eye”, curated by William Seitz, including Victor Vasarely, Josef Albers, Julian Stanczak, Bridget Riley, and Richard Anuszkiewicz.

• The second section includes another generation of painters, working primarily in New York City, whose paintings have developed, extended and formalized the principles of concrete form in relation to the phenomenon of color, shape, and surface. Artists in this group include, Sanford Wurmfeld, Robert Swain, Gabriele Evertz, Gilbert Hsiao, and Rakuko Naito.

• While functioning at various stages and levels in their careers, the third group of painters represented in “The Optical Edge” are Soonja Han, Michelle Hinebrook, Ryszard Wasko, Beverly Fishman, and Jon Groom. According to the curator, “These artists continue to evolve through a kind of allegorical opticality. In general, they exceed the limits of formal content as optical information challenges them to pursue unstable realms of representation that include surveillance, information media, irony, displacement, and multicultural forms of de-institutionalized spirituality.”

Robert C. Morgan is an artist, curator, art historian, international critic, and lecturer. The author of several books and essays, in 2005, Dr. Morgan was a Fulbright Scholar in the Republic of Korea where he did research on the traditional arts as a source for the Korean avant-garde. Among the many exhibitions he has curated are the retrospective exhibitions of Allan Kaprow (1979) and Komar and Melamid (1979 - 80) at the Ulrich Museum of Art, Kansas; "Six Artists and the Visual Score" (1985) at the Pyramid Art Center, Rochester, New York; "Samadhi" (2002-03) at the Chelsea Art Museum; and "The Sign of Paradise" (2005) at the Mike Weiss Gallery, New York. In 1999, the Municipality of Salamanca, Spain awarded Dr. Morgan the first Arcale prize for international art criticism. He is Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Fine Arts Department at Pratt Institute.

On Friday, March 9 at 6:00 p.m., Pratt continues its thought provoking “In Conversation” series with an informal talk led by the curator, along with artists, whose artworks are represented in the show, including Soonja Han, Jon Groom, Ryszard Wasko, and Sanford Wurmfeld. The exhibition and events are free and open to the public.

About Pratt Institute:
Founded in 1887, Pratt Institute (www.pratt.edu) is one of the largest independent colleges of art and design in the United States, offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the schools of architecture, art and design, information and library science, and liberal arts and sciences. Pratt is located on 25 landscaped acres in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn and has a Manhattan campus in a large, newly renovated building on West 14th Street.

About Pratt Manhattan Gallery:
Pratt Manhattan Gallery is a public art gallery affiliated with Pratt Institute. The goals of the gallery are to present significant innovative and intellectually challenging work in the fields of art, architecture, fashion, and design from around the world and to provide a range of educational initiatives to help viewers relate contemporary art to their lives in a meaningful way.

Gilbert Hsiao, Revolver II, acrylic on canvas, 36 inches diamater

CONTACT: Victoria Benitez 718-399-4548 or vbenitez@pratt.edu

Opening Reception: 6 - 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 West 14th Street New York
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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