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  1. AVA Gallery Hop @ CreateHere: HelloWorld.show(); + Live Portraits from Mia Bergeron Thursday, September 03, 2009

    Strap on your walking shoes and bring out your bikes because it’s almost time, art lovers, for the AVA Gallery Hop. On Saturday, September 12th, from 2 to 9 pm, galleries, studios and fine art retailers will open their doors to patrons from all walks of life—inviting them to come in, have a drink or a snack, see some art, talk shop, and then shove off to the next venue and do it all over again.

    Gallery Hop 2009 will feature nearly 30 galleries and studios spanning the downtown area, from Northshore to Main Street to St. Elmo. This annual event, now in its fourth year, provides the public with a great opportunity to check out the local art scene and meet working artists in their studios.

    CreateHere’s 55here gallery space will host a closing reception for HelloWorld.show(); that same day, with live music from Christie Burns, from 6 to 8 pm and in-house portrait painting by Mia Bergeron all day.

    For more information on the Gallery Hop, visit AVA’s website, or download an event map.

    AVA Gallery Hop
    HelloWorld.show(); closing reception
    September 12, 2 pm to 9 pm

    Posted by Administrator in Upcoming Events in Art Shows

  2. HelloWorld.show(); | A Curator’s Take (part 1) Friday, August 28, 2009

    In honor of our extended gallery hours tonight for August’s Last Fridays on Main, we’re proud to present a curator’s perspective on our current exhibition, HelloWorld.show();. Below is part one in a two part series, written by Senior Arts Fellow Jessica Martin.

    Let’s face it, we live in a digital world. Even those of us that don’t consider ourselves technically savvy interact with virtual spaces every day, and likely, we do little to acknowledge the wizard and work behind the curtain. That very notion inspired the concept for HelloWorld.show();—55here’s latest exhibition.

    The exhibit features local and national participation from traditional artists and programmers. Yes, programmers, the people who write computer code, professionals using geek-speak. The show’s focus is to highlight code and all of its glory. Front- and back-end programming in various formats activate the space and transform it into a virtual realm.

    HelloWorld.show(); showcases 10 artists’ work, including two collaborations.

    Weston McWhorter, a designer and web developer in New Orleans, challenges viewers and turns the notion of “high art” on it’s head. To the untrained eye, McWhorter’s work may be perceived as painting. But in actuality, the artist generated the random color chunks in “Untitled 1” thru “4”, using PHP (a scripting language). The result: four High-res UV prints on canvas that fill the space and introduce concentrated, regimented modules of color throughout. 

    Matt Turnure, a Chattanooga native and local web developer, is sensitive to visual aesthetic while having a mind geared toward technical analysis. His piece, “#slideshow”, illuminates the script and imagery that breathe life into his website. The clean, white lines of his lightbox accentuate 4 transparent layers on which Matt has printed imagery, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. “#slideshow” illustrates the three main layers of a web page’s engine and its respective code.

    In concert with the geometric lines that are traditionally formed from technical and electronic installation, show participants Matt Sears, Isaac Duncan, and Rudd Montgomery have contributed functional and traditional sculptural works that were manufactured from natural elements such as wood and metal.

    The long, soft lines of Matt Sear’s sculpture, which houses an iPod Touch, accentuate the bold, mathematical presence created by Aaron Gustafson’s “Tipr” application, shown on the iPod. Together Sears, a local woodworker, and Gustafson, a local programmer, explore a dialogue where two very similar but different languages interact, each has a different dialect, one organic and the other technical. 

    This concept is also explored through the collaboration and work of Dan Rubin and Isaac Duncan III. Rubin, of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, is a designer who has a strong interest and experience with (X)HTML and CSS. Duncan is a local sculptor. Together, they tackle the issue of the common perception that the virtual world is flat.  “The Space Between the Lines”, explores the multi-faceted nature of web design by revealing multiple viewpoints of the process of web design and displays them on a 3-dimensional surface.

    Look for part two in this series later this afternoon!

    Posted by Administrator in Upcoming Events in Art Shows