nOise anusmOs
APRIL 12 Ð MAY 26, 2012 NYC
American artist Joseph Nechvatal presents his solo show with a
series of new paintings entitled, nOise anusmOs at Galerie Richard, New
York from April 12th to May 26th, 2012. The gallery displays ten new paintings
from 2011, in which the human body connects to the cosmos, appearing both
figurative and abstract. The theme of nOise anusmOs is a linkage of the human
retina and anus to the cosmos. nOise anusmOs suggests that this
includes the connectivity of the noisy universe with the inner human in a
spirit of imaginative artistic audacity and erotic spirituality. The viewer can
imaginatively replace him or herself within a Dionysian flux of cosmological
nature. Other influences on this show are American transcendental black metal
music and avant-garde saxophone music. These new paintings can also be
perceived as abstract paintings of light and space. The new velvet material
brings a sensual matte and satin finish as well as intensity in colors (the
black color is as dark as Chinese ink) for a full visual pleasure.
Joseph Nechvatal has worked with electronic images and computer
technology since 1986, and has been infecting his paintings with computer
viruses since 1991. In 2001 Joseph Nechvatal and StŽphane Sikora combined the
initial digital virus project with the principles of artificial life, in other
words creating systems of synthesis that reproduces the behavioral
characteristics of living systems. In nOise anusmOs, the virus cannot be seen.
It acts as an anti-virus, which creates the subject matter instead of
destroying it. The virus knits filaments of cells and assembles them
gradually to create the images. Art connoisseurs will be able to draw
similarities between these works and NechvatalÕs graphite drawings that he made
before 1986.
The exhibition also presents four works from NechvatalÕs stOry
Of the eye
series, 2010. For the first time, each painting is presented with a digital
video. However, none of these paintings has been infected with the virus since
1991, which is very rare. Each video shows a painting alongside the virus in
one or two colored dots or a multitude of points. This population of active
viruses then grows, reproduces and propagates within the space of the picture.
In this series, the virus infects the image with one single color until it
becomes monochromatic, marking the end of the process. This contamination of
the traditional painting on canvas by new digital technologies thus creates an
interface between the virtual and the real, which Nechvatal calls the viractual.
Furthermore, the exhibition also features four paintings from
the 2008 series, Out Of shadOws. Firstly, Nechvatal utilized his old photographs from going out
to nightclubs in the East Village and the Lower East Side in the 1970s. He then
digitally manipulated them, adding fluidity to the floating shadows and
infecting them with a virus that made them appear as frozen crystals.
*****
Installation views
*****
works in the show
asstrOnOmical affected
autOmata
2011 44x66Ó
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
fundament vOluptŽ
2011 44x66Ó
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
anus cosmos
2011 44x66Ó computer-robotic
assisted acrylic on canvas
nOise anusmOs
2011 44x66Ó
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
dOn't ask dOn't tell (dyptich)
2010 43Ó x 23Ó & 19.5 computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
Ó
autOmata retinal
2011 66x44ÓÓ
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
an us
2011 66x44ÓÓ
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
autOmata libertine
2011 66x44ÓÓ
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
euphOric anus
2011 44x66Ó
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
madOnna cOl bambino
2011 66x44ÓÓ
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
transcendental fundament
2011 66x44ÓÓ
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
sOuth pOle
2011 44x66Ó
computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas
rOsebud, even
2010 20 x 20 inches, 50 x 50 cm computer-robotic
assisted acrylic on canvas and screen with digital animation screen
fleur de lys rectal
2010 20 x 20 inches, 50
x 50 cm computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas and screen with digital
animation screen
windOw sphincter
2010 20 x 20 inches, 50
x 50 cm computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas and screen with digital
animation screen
blackeye
2010 20 x 20 inches, 50
x 50 cm computer-robotic assisted acrylic on canvas and screen with digital
animation screen
Out of shadOw : phantom
2009 20 x 40 inches, 50 x 100 cm
(diptych) (two 20 x 20 canvases)
Out Of shadOw : disavOwel
2009 20 x 60 inches, 50 x 150 cm
(triptych) (three 20 x 20 canvases)
Out of shadOw dark side
Out
2009 20 x 40 inches, 50 x 100 cm
(diptych)
(two 20 x 20 canvases)
*****
presented at
*****