There are over 200 billion suns in this galaxy, and it is estimated that every second one has a planetary system orbiting it. George Bolster examines the human position in this immense universe, using the discoveries of exoplanets and ancient galaxies as clues to re-interpreting our culture and place in the cosmos. In Intergalactic Romanticism: Fallible Earthlings, Bolster fuses digital and physical painting with tapestry. Each work has multiple stages of discreet analogue and digital processes within it, including embroidery and manipulation of the image by unthreading, the result of his interaction with machines. Through this process, he attempts to create images of the as-yet impossible-to-see surface landscapes of planets outside our solar system. Bolster acknowledges the fallibility of our society and culture: “We need to not live through fiction, but embrace reality as a positive state for our survival.” As the artist embroiders in The Only Intelligent Life Found (2024), one of the tapestries on view, we are meaningless and meaningful. Humans are small and fallible but also absolutely extraordinary—it is necessary to cherish each life we have. Acceptance of this will ultimately help us to recognize and accept who we are. Astronomy as a scientific inquiry continuously distorts the idea of what humans really are and meant to be. Humankind is not necessarily central to the scheme of the universe. The Earth is actually in an insignificant part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which overturns our beliefs about our special place within it. Bolster’s work and perspective experiment grant this alternative view to see this landscape, shifting the focus of historical and political attentions. Many, of course, choose to live their lives based on fictional origin stories, believing they are destined to go to another world after death, while sitting on the precipice of long-term environmental and cultural disaster. The exhibition opens on Friday, February 23, with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8 pm. Intergalactic Romanticism: Fallible Earthlings, is a long-awaited second solo exhibition with the gallery by multidisciplinary artist George Bolster, after his first solo exhibition in 2020 and solo presentation with the gallery at the Amory Show 2021. George Bolster is a multidisciplinary research-based artist addresses ideas and belief systems from various media and perspective—through his ambitiously immersive text and image works encompassing film, installation, tapestry and photography. He utilizes a combination of science, art history, and sci-fi to examine our most prescient societal and species-wide challenges. Bolster has exhibited in a number of museums and galleries, including Barbara Thumm Galerie, Berlin, Germany; MASS MoCA, MA; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; RHA, Dublin, Ireland; CCI, Paris, France; and MMCA, Seoul, Korea. Bolster has been awarded grants from the Arts Council of Ireland, and is the recipient of residencies at Bundanon, Bundanon Museum, Australia; CCI, Paris, France (2019); SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA (2016-17); and the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, FL (2013). Bolster’s monograph When Will We Recognize Us was recently published by Hirmer, and his work has appeared in Artforum, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Irish Art Review.
]]>"CompostModern," a salon-style discussion forum, revolutionizing the way we present the work of poets and writers to the public. We have opened the floor to the community, bringing you in to participate in the planning, discussion, and hopes for the future of art, poetics and science. As the name implies, the CompostModern forum aims to re-cycle our rich aesthetic history. If the project of postmodernism was to deconstruct traditions, it has left us with a fertile soil out of which new forms may emerge. It is with the belief that all new forms of art must evolve from a history that we approach the guiding question of the forum: What is creativity? At each weekly meeting, Dactyl members, noted artists, poets, and scientists will be able to talk freely and on equal terms. We want to know your opinions, beliefs, values and theories about everything from beauty and meaning to pop-culture and hype.
]]>92YTribeca presents the works of Rachel Beach and Nicole Stager – both formerly shown at Like the Spice gallery in Brooklyn – in an opening reception for this semi-permanent exhibit. Brooklyn-dwelling, Ontario-born Rachel Beach creates works that have been described as “tough, precise and disciplined with a hard edged cheeriness.” Her wall-mounted sculptures – wooden portals and towers – rest on the border “between sculpture and painting, illusion and reality, masculine and feminine, representation, abstraction and decoration.” The portals literally take on the idea of a window, framing a section of wall or empty space in the gallery; the towers are architectural but can also seem at times like freestanding ornament. Each of these sculpture/paintings is designed to alter our visual perception of three-dimensional form. Nicole Stager creates her work in the darkroom, drawing with handheld light sources in a process that combines the specificity of photography with the aesthetic of abstract painting. Time, color, shape and line are all uniquely presented in Stager’s work; the final product has far more to do with the interaction of light, shadow and chemistry than with the objects that produced them. A native of Pennsylvania, Stager is currently completing her MFA in New Media from the Transart Instituta at Danube University in Krems, Austria.
]]>An interactive exhibition of images and tracks from Visionaire 53. SOUND is currently on view at the Gallery. Visionaire 53 consists of five 12-inch vinyl records, imprinted with images (picture discs), containing approximately 100 minutes of sound content featuring audio experiments, unreleased songs, samples, and spoken word pieces. [Image: Anna Blessman and Peter Saville "Heaven" (2008)]
]]>The Broken Kilometer, 1979, located at 393 West Broadway in New York City, is composed of 500 highly polished, round, solid brass rods, each measuring two meters in length and five centimeters (two inches) in diameter. The 500 rods are placed in five parallel rows of 100 rods each. The sculpture weighs 18 3/4 tons and would measure 3,280 feet if all the elements were laid end-to-end. Each rod is placed such that the spaces between the rods increase by 5mm with each consecutive space, from front to back; the first two rods of each row are placed 80mm apart, the last two rods are placed 580 mm apart. Metal halide stadium lights illuminate the work which is 45 feet wide and 125 feet long. This work is the companion piece to De Maria's 1977 Vertical Earth Kilometer at Kassel, Germany. In that permanently installed earth sculpture, a brass rod of the same diameter, total weight and total length has been inserted 1,000 meters into the ground. The Broken Kilometer has been on long-term view to the public since 1979. This work was commissioned and is maintained by Dia Art Foundation. All images of The Broken Kilometer are copyright Dia Art Foundation and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from Dia Art Foundation. photo credit: Jon Abbott
]]>The New York Earth Room, 1977, is the third Earth Room sculpture executed by the artist, the first being in Munich, Germany in 1968. The second was installed at the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany in 1974. The first two works no longer exist. The New York Earth Room has been on long-term view to the public since 1980. This work was commissioned and is maintained by Dia Art Foundation. [Image: Walter De Maria “The New York Earth Room” Photo: John Cliett © Dia Art Foundation]
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