Ward’s tape installation changes the layout of the space, which Suzanne Song’s acrylic on panel piece gives the illusion of incredible depth. .
Peter Demos channeled Rothko’s black-on-black series for these gloss and matte acrylic canvases, both Untitled.
Optical Art deserves a revival. Post-Op, a group show at the Mixed Greens gallery in New York, revisits the movement at a key moment of renewed relevance. “The exhibition references our relationship to color, computer graphics, digital art, and even the way we process large amounts of conflicting information in our daily lives,” director Heather Bhandari tells Co.Design. “Many of the pieces in the show are low-tech, labored, tactile versions of images we are now used to seeing on a computer screen.”
With a wealth of material to choose from, how did Mixed Greens select its collection? The gallery accepts submissions twice a year; the team then considers these as part of a larger whole with the rest of the work they’ve seen, and curates their on-site shows accordingly. “After looking at a lot of art, common materials, processes, or themes emerge that we’d like to think about and exhibit around. We’ll explore a subject we’ve started to see out in the world in a little more depth,” Bhandari says. “Post-Op highlights an intense investigation of perception and illusion.”
And while they had previously viewed most of the pieces from the eight participating artists and picked them because they suited the theme, there was still room for some site-specifics. “Rebecca Ward loves rethinking a space by utilizing existing architecture, and actually wrapped two columns that have never been used before with her large-scale tape installation,” Bhandari says. “The visitor’s experience is thoroughly changed by her work.” It also seems fitting that, given the undercurrent of visual trickery, one of the works must be witnessed in person to truly take in. “Emilio Gomzariz contributed an animated gif to the exhibition. The funny thing is that it’s impossible to photograph or represent in a static image–all you see is a grid. If you came to the gallery, you would see a rotating shape in a sea of squares.”
Post-Op will be showing at Mixed Greens in New York through August 17th.
All images courtesy of Etienne Frossard.
(H/T Triangulation Blog)