Esther and John Clay Fine Art Gallery

Exhibition Statement:

[Keys of Fury] is a typing project (KYBDslöjd) that makes material the text characters while typing on the keyboard. This process slows down the interaction between the end-user and the computer, which prompts questions about our relationships with technology. The computer is a tool that allows us to express ideas visually in contrast to the constant connection to technology and its functionality today. The use of obsolete and vintage computers examines how these tools can still serve a vital function. The characters in Commodore 64 (PETSCII) are used without ornament like concrete in brutalist architecture, capturing the spirit and the contradictions of our time. 

KYBDslöjd uses a particular way of working with keystrokes and PETSCII on the Commodore 64 with software developed by Mathman (Johan Kotlinski) called Nop. The program consists of two parts: a block of data statements containing the instructions (where all the keystrokes are recorded), and a section of code, which reads the data and outputs the animation. There is no menu, so all the instructions; like color, position, and character shape are typed on the keyboard. A black screen with a blinking cursor is the starting point to build graphics and animations, character by character. This process is like cross-stitch, a form of counted thread embroidery, or the typewriter technique, both not allowing for corrections. Any unintended strikes force the user to start all over again. In KYBDslöjd, hardware and software are a challenge, they are not decorations, or sources of nostalgia. It is a conversation about why we must return to a deeper understanding of the technology that has infiltrated our everyday lives.  We must continue innumerable acts of resistance. The tyranny of the “easy to use” and immediate gratification are dissuasive tactics that lead toward boredom.

Artist Bio:

Raquel Meyers (Cartagena, Spain b. 1977) works with obsolete technologies like the Commodore 64, Teletext, typewriters or fax machines mixed with photography, animation and embroidery, among other techniques. She defines her practice as KYBDslöjd [mecanografía expandida] whose significance can be defined roughly as <a manual skill with a keyboard>. It is based on and refers to the typewriter, Concrete Poetry, Demoscene and Brutalism. The keystrokes contribute to the execution, while poetry contributes to a system, through revealing the architecture of PETSCII, the raw and unadorned character set of Commodore 64. Her work has been shown in art centers, galleries and festivals such as Ars Electronica, Transmediale, Xpo Gallery Paris, P21 Gallery Seoul, La Casa encendida, Liste Art Fair Basel, La Gaîté lyrique, Tokyo Blip Festival, Square Sounds Melbourne, Vector Festival, LABoral, the Digerati Emergent Media Festival (Formerly Supernova), iMAL, SeMa Nanji, VISION’R, Mapping, Piksel, Shibuya Pixel Art, LEV, MFRU, HeK, Fylkingen, and PlatteForum.

www.raquelmeyers.com

Robert and his wife have a gallery in Riverton. He is currently showing an exhibit in Cheyenne at the Wyoming State Museum called “Grounded”. Much of Robert’s current work uses the historical imagery, myth’s and stories of the West & Arapaho Culture combined with modern themes to create images that have a statement on the issues of today. Using intense vibrant color and contrasting shades of light and dark, he paints and draws striking forms that are confronting and engages the viewer.

His paintings and drawings have been shown across the Nation and have garnered noted acclaim. He’s been given Wyoming’s highest award for the arts, the Wyoming Governors Art Award. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Wyoming State Museum, The Brinton Museum, The Plains Indian Museum at the Cody Center of the West, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

A strong supporter of Education and of the Arts, Robert devotes time to helping and mentoring emerging artists on his reservation and throughout the Nation. He gives back to the community by speaking about art topics, giving workshops, and demonstrates his style to schools, agencies and art groups.

My work attempts to convey the importance of touch and conveys the process of pottery making and the experiential properties of working in the studio. An- other passion of mine is marine life, so including textures and colors that refer to the coral reef is a natural fit for my work. 

Conveying the tactile quality of working with clay while also referring to the pace of studio work is important to my practice. I attempt to describe the qualities of the clay at all stages of making so that anybody can feel a connection to the process when holding and using the pottery. One way I do this is to leave throwing rings on the insides of my pots while taking care to compress the exterior with a metal rib. I also carefully craft the foot rim while throwing, or keep the piece wet while trimming, which enables me to move the clay farther, showing the plasticity and adding some playful individuality to each piece. When the clay is leather hard, I use a variety of tools to plan out where I’ll put surface decorations. I further the personal narrative of my work by using one of my daughter’s sewing tools to draw lines on the surface. 

I have dedicated my artistic practice to exploring seemingly random visual elements by painting them in layers using mixed media. My work is a dense amalgamation of symbols and abstraction that I procure from the often crowded and chaotic urban landscape to excite the viewer’s senses. My work is focused on an intense and long process of reacting to the tools and surface by responding to any desired element according to historical embodiment and techniques that give my elements a reference to expressionism, though I can’t define my approach in only one movement. Eternally the impressions and expression of what my tools give me leave reminisces of those histories of the moment I currently find myself observing.

My philosophy is to be as sentient with visual interpretations as possible and make work that will challenge my own assumptions of what art can be. For me, the beauty lies between the layers and those elements that offer the most meaningful relationship between the art and what the viewer experiences. I evoke a visual tension between environments of abstraction and symbolism. That tension can be the most meaningful facet of my artistic process. My imagery I chose is a relationship with the viewer that I use to gain access to the emotional and imagination that creates a dialogue that I feel explores our human story. 

Ripples of the Void explores the ongoing exploration and collaboration of Artificial intelligence and artists. By merging art with technology we can create a glimpse of a new humanity which will evolve to understand art and science. We are the pioneers who can grow our minds and merge it with technologies to explore a new art form with a human sensory experience. I challenge viewers to pull from their own experiences and develop a story tailored to their own life and imagination. Guided by imagery and details, these stories push me to explore paintings in new ways for every new project.  Relying on the fundamentals of art, I push myself to use new techniques, materials, and reinvent ways to show artwork.   

 
Ripples of the Void is an expansion on my earlier series titled “Vaporwave” which is an exploration of the subliminal effects of pop culture’s influence on our inner psyche. This is an ongoing evolution that has been exacerbated by the popularization of Artificial Intelligent tools.  Challenging what we know about creativity and the use of tools in art. The field of artificial intelligence is rapidly improving human capabilities by making machines think and act like humans. Since AI is currently being applied for good purposes, there's no reason not to use it in innovative ways today. AI will undoubtedly affect how we work, communicate, entertain ourselves, protect ourselves from threats and numerous other things in the future. Until then, I will keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible with artificial intelligence!

Laura Shill is an interdisciplinary artist based in Denver, CO, whose work is a combination of sculpture, installation, performance, and photography. Her work addresses ideas of disclosure and concealment, agency and emotional risk, desire and discontent, often oscillating between humor and heartbreak.  Often present in her work are the pronounced absences she creates to make visible the invisible power structures that inform our relationships to each other or conceal the work of care that props up the whole human endeavor. Her sculptural and installation works borrow theatrical conventions as a nod to the performance of the self that we undertake daily. Many of these works invite touch and blur boundaries between public and private space. Shill employs repetition of form to create environments that make thousands of hours of invisible labor material. She uses everyday objects and supplies to make these works, often salvaged from roadsides and thrift stores or scavenged from former iterations of projects to test her theory that anything can be transformed with enough time and attention and care.

Shill has exhibited work nationally and internationally at an official satellite of the 57th Venice Biennale at the European Cultural Center, The Gallery of Contemporary Art, Colorado Springs, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, and Durden and Ray, Los Angeles. She earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2012. Images from her Hidden Mother archive were included in the 2013 Photographers’ Gallery London exhibition, Home Truths, Photography and Motherhood, and were published in the catalog edited by Susan Bright. For her 2016 solo exhibition, Phantom Touch, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Shill developed and relied on a community-based equitable barter system for artistic labor and production to realize an ambitiously soft environment. 

Eclectic Motion, a solo exhibition of works by Emma Balder, channels an array of movements within the natural world. A diverse collection of fiber paintings and sculptural paintings, each work captures moments frozen in the midst of change: clouds drifting by, an undulating wave, the erratic force of the wind. Reflecting a continual experimentation in Balder’s practice, the works place material transformation at the forefront. As curator Heather Bhandari states, “the pieces give a lasting impression of motion and serve as a compelling reminder of what it means to be alive – that breaking, mending, rearrangement, and renewal are constant truths.” While movement presents itself in many forms, its message remains the same; movement creates change, and change is a cornerstone to growth.

“A Thousand Words” examines the interplay between the figurative & literal term consisting of several 8" X 5" collages incorporated with drawings of peoples’ faces executed on text-filled newsprint pages. When looking at a person’s facial expression, you can tell how they’re feeling at that particular moment whereas text, words, verbiage and recognizable text/identity marks explains it for you. Either way, we’re provided a mental picture from both, which illustrate the fact that a picture is worth “A Thousand Words” illustrated on a thousand words.

Art has the ability to empower people and evoke social change.  At its core my work addresses issues of power- who has it, how it should be used, and how to find and wield our own power.  It is largely spurred by corruption, greed, labor exploitation and class struggle.  Through it, I strive to question and challenge power structures but also offer hope and a sense of solidarity to those who feel vulnerable.