FUTURE

Simple-ism

November 4th -25th

Opening Reception:

Saturday November 4th 6-8 pm

Simple-ism opens on November 4th with a reception from 6-8 pm and will run through November 25th. This exhibition examines the role of the artist's identity. The artist featured identifies himself only by the name Anonymous Artist , simultaneously removing himself while claiming the anonymous artistic achievements of the past. Simple-ism also reexamines “Color Field” painting in a digital age. “Color Field” paintings rejected personal content in order to explore the language of intuitive expression. Therefore the thoughts and ideas of the artists themselves became less important and the idea of abstraction as an end to itself became the focus.

How much of a role does an artist's resume play in our understanding of the quality of a piece of art? Anonymous Artist asks us to reject our preconceived notions when looking at his work. AA requests that the viewer relies on their own conceptions and aesthetic response. He doesn't want past exhibitions and collectors to influence the viewer's decision about the work, good or bad. AA's resume and artist statement are obviously fictionalized and serve to add a moment of humor to the exhibition. In a society where information about any topic is readily available to all, this exhibition allows the viewer to judge for themselves without documentation to tell them if they are right or wrong.

Simple-ism looks back to “Color Field” paintings of the late fifties; a style chosen because it rejects the importance of social or historical meaning in painting. The ideas of the artist are not as important as the way the colors and shapes interact. These images explore how digital art can be transferred from the computer to the wall without losing the luminosity of the work on the screen. A variety of mediums were investigated, but light boxes were chosen because they captured the desired radiance. The work examines the way different colors respond to each other as well as the role size, shape and line play in color interaction. The glow of the screen creates a new experience of flatness and depth within the colors completely different from that of a traditional canvas. “Color Field” paintings sought to rid art of superfluous rhetoric much the way these pieces are broken down to the bare minimum of composition and utterly remove the persona of the artist.

Anonymous Artist

Artist Statement

Best known for such timeless masterpieces as the Altimara and Lascaux cave paintings, Bayeux Tapestry and the Book of Kells, to name a few, Anonymous Artist adds to his amazingly prolific body of work with a selection of recent abstract art rooted firmly in a postmodernist sensibility. After dabbling in and mastering countless disciplines over the years including classical Greek and Pre-Columbian sculpture, Assyrian Palace relief, Islamic metalwork, Chinese jade, Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Mesopotamian pottery and Egyptian wall painting, AA takes an exciting leap into the 21 st Century with his first foray into digital media. AA takes the concept of “light as the source of all things visual” literally by presenting his images in the form of light boxes to produce an electrifying effect. AA's work is in the collections of some of the world's most prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Louvre in Paris, The British Museum in London and the Vatican Museum in Rome.


	Simple-ism November 4th -25th Opening Reception: Saturday November 4th 6-8 pm *Simple-ism* opens on November 4th with a reception from 6-8 pm and will run through November 25th. This exhibition examines the role of the artist's identity. The artist featured identifies himself only by the name Anonymous Artist , simultaneously removing himself while claiming the anonymous artistic achievements of the past. Simple-ism also reexamines “Color Field” painting in a digital age. “Color Field” paintings rejected personal content in order to explore the language of intuitive expression. Therefore the thoughts and ideas of the artists themselves became less important and the idea of abstraction as an end to itself became the focus. How much of a role does an artist's resume play in our understanding of the quality of a piece of art? Anonymous Artist asks us to reject our preconceived notions when looking at his work. AA requests that the viewer relies on their own conceptions and aesthetic response. He doesn't want past exhibitions and collectors to influence the viewer's decision about the work, good or bad. AA's resume and artist statement are obviously fictionalized and serve to add a moment of humor to the exhibition. In a society where information about any topic is readily available to all, this exhibition allows the viewer to judge for themselves without documentation to tell them if they are right or wrong. Simple-ism looks back to “Color Field” paintings of the late fifties; a style chosen because it rejects the importance of social or historical meaning in painting. The ideas of the artist are not as important as the way the colors and shapes interact. These images explore how digital art can be transferred from the computer to the wall without losing the luminosity of the work on the screen. A variety of mediums were investigated, but light boxes were chosen because they captured the desired radiance. The work examines the way different colors respond to each other as well as the role size, shape and line play in color interaction. The glow of the screen creates a new experience of flatness and depth within the colors completely different from that of a traditional canvas. “Color Field” paintings sought to rid art of superfluous rhetoric much the way these pieces are broken down to the bare minimum of composition and utterly remove the persona of the artist. Anonymous Artist Artist Statement Best known for such timeless masterpieces as the Altimara and Lascaux cave paintings, Bayeux Tapestry and the Book of Kells, to name a few, Anonymous Artist adds to his amazingly prolific body of work with a selection of recent abstract art rooted firmly in a postmodernist sensibility. After dabbling in and mastering countless disciplines over the years including classical Greek and Pre-Columbian sculpture, Assyrian Palace relief, Islamic metalwork, Chinese jade, Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, Mesopotamian pottery and Egyptian wall painting, AA takes an exciting leap into the 21 st Century with his first foray into digital media. AA takes the concept of “light as the source of all things visual” literally by presenting his images in the form of light boxes to produce an electrifying effect. AA's work is in the collections of some of the world's most prestigious museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Louvre in Paris, The British Museum in London and the Vatican Museum in Rome.