Flatlanders & Surface Dwellers

March 9, 2013 – June 1, 2013

March 9 – May 15, 2013

Flatlanders & Surface Dwellers is a group exhibition featuring diverse visual art media that explore the intimate and exotic realm of surface texture which evokes visceral, multi-sensory responses. Throughout the history of art making, the artist’s relationship with surface has been a serious consideration. Renaissance artists, striving for illusion, expected the viewer to ignore the surface. Modernists embraced the surface and made it a primary consideration. Postmodernity does whatever it feels like with surface. Now, the digital revolution has allowed viewers to “interact with” the surfaces of gadgets; but still, an illusion is all that is ultimately permitted. This leaves the curious soul of the viewer with the desire to touch, connect, cut, penetrate, peel away and expose layers. As artists, we are aware that surface is ours to manipulate, whether it is a mask of superficiality, a final layer of honesty or a cloak of mystery. The book Flatland, written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott, is loosely referenced in the exhibition, as it provides a philosophical look at a two-dimensional world, exploring abstract concepts of shape, line and point, and highlighting “a world within the surface.” This exhibition is curated by Lea Anderson, and artists were selected by both invitation and a call for submissions.



ARTISTS INCLUDE:

Ivan Boyd, Jessica Kennedy, Steve Budington, Alex Kraft, Phillip Carrier, June Lee, Jennifer Cawley, Noelle Mason, Cristina de los Santos, Andrew McPhail, Nicole Dextras, Zach Meisner, Jessica Drenk, Inés Molina Navea, Gregory Euclide, Timothy Nero, Marla Fields, Rusty Scruby, Blake Gibson, Peter Voshefski, Melissa Gwyn, Rhonda Weppler & Trevor Mahovsky, Marie-Michèle Jasmin-Bélisle and Jim Wilsterman

PRESS

Eva Avenue, “Beyond the Surface at 516 ARTS” Pyragraph