Power Plant GalleryReflections Within the Transitioning Grid
On View
-Third Friday Durham Opening Reception and Artist’s Talk
September 15, 2017, 5pm – 8pm. Talk begins at 6:30pm
with libi rose and Merrill Shatzman
An exhibition by Merrill Shatzman and libi rose
Download the gallery guide pdf
How we navigate, plan, design and build, and where we live, work and shop, are all dependent on different grid formations. The grid provides us with a sense of security, balance, orientation, boundary, exploration and containment. Psychologically, the concept of a grid is a constant throughout our lives, appearing as constructs in our memories, in our behavior, and in our daily life functions.
Decisions of all types are made in relationship to the grid, yet what emphasis is put on the unpredictable organic forms that visually evolve inside these spaces, counterbalancing our geometric borders?
This exhibit visually and formally examines the relationship between organic form and structure through deciphering images of contemporary curtain-wall architecture found in New York, London, Shanghai and Tokyo. It presents the artists’ vision of subjects in multiple ways and formats while fusing traditionally-made imagery with technologically-generated applications. The work was digitally produced, but it is at its root, very much organically constructed.
The prints and installations were generated from photographs capturing abstractions within contained spaces, by focusing on form, layering, contradiction, and beauty. In addition to revealing free-flowing lines, organic shapes and unique patterns made from reflections and shadows, the artists’ interests in cartography, urban planning, architecture, typography, calligraphy, archaeology, topography, and symbolism become evident.
Thank you to our sponsors
Reflections Within the Transitioning Grid: Merging Structure, Form and Design with Technology has been supported by Duke University Council for the Arts Collaboration Development Grants, and Arts & Sciences Council Committee on Faculty Research Grant. Merrill Shatzman and libi rose would also like to thank The Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, and Innovation Co-Lab at Duke University for the use of their laser cutters.
Bios:
libi rose will sometimes admit to being an artist. She will always admit to being fond of puzzles, alternative modes of learning/thinking, complexity theory and robots.
She collaborates with the SLIPPAGE: Performance, Culture, Technology lab at Duke University and is co-founder of the OFF microcinema in Fort Collins. Her work has appeared at various venues in the U.S., Canada and Europe—including Moogfest and MIRE. It is also freely available online because libi believes information should have no owners. She holds an MFA in experimental and documentary arts from Duke University and a BA/BFA in film studies from CU Boulder.
Merrill Shatzman, Professor of the Practice of Visual Art at Duke University has taught courses in printmaking, bookmaking, typography, drawing and digital imaging for the past thirty-three years. She received her BFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (1978) and her MA and MFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1981). Using relief and silkscreen printmaking methods, her images meld abstracted, readable letterforms and symbols extracted from Western, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, Mesoamerican, ancient writing systems, contemporary graffiti, calligraphy, charts and maps. Her working process involves excising segments of her printed images, dissecting, layering, repositioning and reassembling them into symbols and icons that have become the trademark of her work. By continually modifying her imagery, she alters her prints, reconnecting and reinterpreting her complex forms into novel permutations that are visually, technically, and conceptually connected and related.
Shatzman’s work has been exhibited in one-woman, invitational, group and juried shows throughout the United States and internationally, with her prints found in many museum and corporate collections. Her prints were shown as a solo exhibition at the The Herbert Johnson Museum at Cornell University in 2009. Recent international biennales and triennials include the 3rd Global Print 2017, Douro, Portugal, Hida Takayama Contemporary Woodblock-Print Triennial 2017 , Takayama Shimin Bunka Kaikan, Takayama, Japan, 6th Guanlan International Print Biennial China 2017 , China Printmaking Museum, Guanlan, Shenzhen, 8th International Printmaking Biennial of Douro 2016, Camara Municipal de Alijo, Portugal, International Print Triennial Krakow 2015, Contemporary Art, Gallery Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland, and 9th Biennale Internationale D’Estampe Contemporaine de Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada (2015).
Juried exhibitions include Fourth National Monotype/Monoprint Juried Exhibition, Monotype Guild of New England, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA (2016), Print Austin: The Contemporary Print 2016, Flatbed Press and Gallery, Austin, TX, Stand Out Prints 2014: Invitational Juried Exhibition, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN, 10th National Print Competition and Exhibition: Pushing Boundaries Expanding Horizons, Janet Turner Print Museum, California State University Chico (2014), The Boston Printmakers 2013 North American Print Biennial, 808 Gallery, Boston University, MA, The 2012 Harnett Biennial of American Prints, Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond Museums, Richmond, VA, Boundless: New Works in Contemporary Printmaking, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT (2012).
Shatzman’s award winning prints are in collections throughout the US including: the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Boston Public Library, The Fogg Museum, UCLA’s Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Art, California State University Long Beach, Museum of Art, Texas Tech University, National Museum of American Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the Springfield Museum of Art.
