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7/11/2007

iBrow

Los Angeles Center For Digital Art - LACDA, Los Angeles

Group show

curated by Rex Bruce

During the course of that part of my career making up my recent sojourn in Los Angeles I have curated, been in, spoken at (or street projected) over fifty exhibits and events. The gamut of works I have been exposed to within the confines of the "art and technology" or "digital" art world has been phenomenal in its breadth as well as its depth. The varied landscape of styles, types of media, aesthetic forms and content therein is seemingly infinite in scope for any individual, as the works and the ideas behind them are produced more quickly than one person could ever hope to experience, let alone understand.

If there is one thing I have learned, it is to approach the gamut with an open mind and bring as little prejudice to the work as possible. Curating (for myself) is an attempt to create a place that allows things to happen. The result hopefully facilitates a series of exhibits that makes a fair representation of the vast culture that defines our moment in history through its emergent technologies.

That said, the common strata of "high" and "low" culture which have, for a century now, been mixing and separating, embracing or snarling at each other have made me keenly aware of the prejudice and general "sour vibe" (if you will allow me) the differentiation often brings into this particular scene. Conversely, being that "information wants to be free" the electronic forum also is an ideal place for people to bring an appreciative (and hybrid) sense to these differences, and indeed they do. This may elicit thoughts of the strata "mid-brow," an idea that popped up some decades ago, indicating a kind of lukewarm mediocrity that is a product of being somewhere between both high brow and low brow.

But, let me propose "no brow." From the vantage of the big picture the definitions high, low or mid seem of little consequence as to why the work is made and how it functions in the world in terms of staking out its value to our culture. They just define different ways of learning, communicating and developing techniques for an extremely varied expression. I like to think of it as different ways of knowing. Overlap or lack thereof is inevitable and hardly merits any hubris driven attitudes or war-like discussions.

This international exhibit represents that mix of expression and I hope exemplifies how "no brow" functions quite readily in a group exhibit in the digital realm (now I can call it iBrow). PhDs, self-taught artists, cartoon surrealists, political bombasters and formalistic experimenters "play together nicely," and taken in as a whole we can begin to learn new things as we make connections pondering them together.

Rex Bruce
October 2007



The Artists:
Carol Ashley
(fantasy/cartoon influence, explores human nature)
Andrew Au
(drawing/digital hybrid, composite imaging, symbolic political commentary)
Zachary Culbreth
(formal experimentation, dynamic multilayered images)
Andrew Erdos
(found digital objects/installation/video)
Nicole Fournier
(digital photography, social narrative, formalistic, explores pattern/form)
Martin Gantman
(conceptual, appropriated images, fabricated social narratives)
Dan Irvine
(composite photographs, process driven, political, empathic)
Pete Jackson
(ultra-wide stitched images, infrared landscape photography)
Kathryn Jacobi
(paint/composite imaging hybrid)
Andy Lomas
(industry animator, 3D algorithmic images, animations, stereoscopes)
Benjamin Lee Martin
(sculpture, web interactive, networked art)
Eva Mayer
(digital composite imaging, virtual dream worlds)
Brad Moore
(digital photography, So. Cal. landscapes, personal narrative)
Mary Neubauer
(data driven sculpture/video, socio-anthropological commentary)
Miwa Nishimura
(digital imaging, personal/woman's narrative)
Joji Okazaki
(digital painting-Japenese cartoon/religious icon influence)
Devon Paulson
(realtime audio installation, digital prints)
Joshua Rowan
(computer drawing, tattoo art influence, political, satirical)
Michael Salerno
(formalistic paint/digital hybrid)
Nathan Selikoff
(algorithmic, mathematically driven, abstract geometric)
Christine Tamblyn
(interactive multi-media, feminist theory influence)
Tiffany Trenda
(performance video, explores the body and technology)
Anneliese Varaldiev
(video images based on classical painting/cinema)

Los Angeles Center For Digital Art - LACDA
5723 Melrose Avenue - Los Angeles

stampa

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