Against the Grain

Manfred Mohr

P777R

2004

custom software, handmade PC, LCD screen, CD

(b. 1938 — Pforzheim, Germany) Beginning in 1977, Manfred Mohr wholly committed himself and his artistic output to the exploration of the 4D hypercube through graph theory. What mathematicians could only represent in theory as the “n-dimension” (any dimension beyond the third dimension, which defines the parameters of our depth perception in the real world), Mohr sought to represent pictorially. He wanted to make the visualization of the fourth dimension possible. By 1989, he found a real solution in the 6D hypercube—the hypercube represented in this new media painting. P777R is a non-repeating, slow-motion transmutation of the leading edge of a six-dimensional hypercube: six cubes whose close arrangement produce 23,040 “connectable” diagonals. Having worked for 30 years in black and white, Mohr—convinced he can represent the n-dimension through the diagonals of a 6D hypercube—now uses color to enhance the planar relationships produced by the leading edge of the hypercube. Setting an infinite number of graphed drawings in motion using a computer that he built in his studio, color and movement collaborate to make the n-dimension visible. Can you see it?

Mohr has used a computer to generate his art since 1968 and is considered a pioneer in new media art. In 1971, he had a show at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France, that became the first one-man show in a museum of works entirely calculated and drawn by a computer. Mohr describes his intentions this way: “The computer became a physical and intellectual extension in the process of creating my art. I write computer algorithms, i.e., rules that calculate and then generate the work which could not be realized in any other way. It is not necessarily the system or the logic I want to present in my work, but the visual invention which results from it. My artistic goal is reached when a finished work can visually dissociate itself from its logical content and convincingly stand as an independent abstract entity.”

Jac Chartier

Infusion (CMYK) 3

2003

acrylic, stains, and paint on wood panel
13 inches x 16 inches

(b. 1975 — Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) In this series of drawings from Paolo Arao’s first solo show “Make Them Love You,” his subject matter is the microphone. The use of microphones implies the desire for an audience, a way to be heard by many, a chance to communicate, and the opportunity to perform. The different types of microphones suggest certain time periods and usages (for politics or entertainment).

Arao has eliminated the speakers, performers, and audience, leaving the microphones to inhabit their own quiet and pristine space. As a result, the microphones appear to interact with themselves. As objects, they become characters: they stand, bow down, hover, tangle, and yearningly reach towards the person before them.

Arao received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the AIM program at the Bronx Museum of Arts. His work has been included in exhibitions at The Drawing Center in New York. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Paolo Arao

Untitled No. 16

2004

graphite on paper
11.25 inches x 15 inches

(b. 1969 — Stockton, California, U.S.) Kara Walker is best known for her wall installations of cutout silhouettes staging pastoral scenes reminiscent of the Old South. These visually seductive works comment on the sexual, physical, and racial exploitation that remain issues today. Walker grew up in a multicultural community in California and didn’t encounter feelings of overt racial bias until she moved to Atlanta. It was this profound experience that inspired her to create works that relate a certain romantic vision of a “Gone with the Wind” Deep South while directly confronting racial stereotypes and stories of slavery. These images serve to narrate dark, often ludicrous tales through fantastic allegories. A critic writes, “As if derived from some sort of collective unconscious, these narratives touch on issues of racial struggle, division of labor and gender, as reenactments of episodes of 19th-century American history.” Walker elaborates, “I’m trying to set up a narrative of myself that references ... a fictional construct through which I tend to view much of my life. A fiction ... with a heroine and an almost discernible plot. In my case, the plot suggested a lot of suppressed, self-imposed racism.”

Iran do Espírito Santo

Bulb II

2005

stainless steel and Teflon
6.5 inches x 4.5 inches

(b. 1963 — Macoca, São Paulo, Brazil) One of Brazil’s most interesting contemporary artists, Iran do Espírito Santo is best known for his sensuously minimalist work that deals with issues of place, structure, material, design, and surface with a rigorous conceptual sensibility. He subtly subverts the canon of minimalism by abstracting not essential geometric shapes, but rather everyday items common to all of us. Espírito Santo is concerned with the tactile attributes of his chosen materials and the sensuous contours of simple abstract forms in space. Working in stainless steel, glass, copper, stone, or paint on plaster, he seeks to awaken our senses to the often-overlooked beauty of commercial objects.

Roger Vail

Inverter

2001

color photo
30 inches x 37.5 inches

(b. 1945 — U.S.) Carnivals have fascinated Roger Vail since his childhood. “I have always loved carnival rides,” he says. “They are one of the best uses of machinery ever invented.” Vail’s fascination is rendered visible in glorious color in his serious of light jet prints, which capture images of iconic rides including the Yoyo, Zipper, and Octopus, among other delightful machines. Shooting at night using 8-by 10-inch transparencies, Vail captures the enticing glow of concession stands and the phantasmagoric rainbows thrown from spinning rides in minute detail. The prints trace light so fantastically as to seem unreal, yet the images are not manipulated or enhanced. “It’s exciting because I never know what they will look like until I develop them,” Vail says. “I think of these images as painting with light.”

Todd Hebert

Dew … Bottle #1

2005

acrylic on canvas over panel
18 inches x 24 inches

(b. 1972 — Valley City, North Dakota, U.S.) Todd Hebert’s crisp and clean paintings, often set in a romantic environment with a hazy sky and foggy landscape, force the viewer to experience the world as if peering through an out-of-focus camera. In this piece, a bottle of water is recognizable in the distance, and in the immediate foreground, a spider web laden with dew or rain droplets can be seen. When attempting to focus on the bottle of water, brief moments of impressionistic clarity emerge through the water drops dispersed along the spider web. The bottle is juxtaposed with the deck railing and the wooded area in the distance. Hebert has presented a minimal still-life painting that asks the viewer to think about his water iconography and the complex way our need for water shapes suburban domesticity.

Christoph Morlinghaus

Untitled — Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption

2005

optical C-print
60 inches x 50 inches

(b. 1968 — Germany) Christoph Morlinghaus’s large-scale photographs derive from the work of Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, and Andreas Gursky. Though a generation younger, Morlinghaus employs their use of architecture—buildings and locations—as a point of departure. Using the now-conventional methods and materials of the new objectivity movement, he presents technically perfect images from large format cameras printed on huge C-print sheets. Shot with an immense depth of field, the photographs are crystal clear with amazingly sharp detail.

In this photograph of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco, California, Morlinghaus captures the ceiling of the structural expressionist architectural masterpiece of Pier Luigi Nervi and Pietro Belluschi. The image conveys the building’s spiritual serenity by incorporating traditional stained-glass elements. Fused with the impressively imposing intricacies of modern architecture, Morlinghaus may be acknowledging a tension within this juxtaposition or exploring the harmonious joining of the spiritual and the worldly.

Morlinghaus began his career as a commercial photographer, working with clients like Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Sony PlayStation before stepping into the arena of fine art with his first solo exhibition at Roebling Hall, New York City, in 2004.

Rachel Foullon

Knot Drawing (Zeppelin)

2014

stained cedar, dyed canvas, hardware
27 inches x 15 inches x 1 inches

(b. 1978 — Glendale, California, U.S.) In Rachel Foullon’s sculptures, weaved, sown, and dyed fabrics are paired with wood and steel elements that look like (or are) pre-industrial tools for farming or weaving. The vintage objects she repurposes are stripped of all history. She sands and removes any patina and grime and refinishes the objects. Here, the materials of the tool are the focus, erasing any artifact of actual labor. By doing so, Foullon’s work allows for a sympathy between the tool and the thing that’s produced. A sweater shape is paired with a loom-like frame. A drawing compass form is paired with a looping line of rope. In these pairings, the viewer can see the symbiotic correspondence between the materials of the objects and not just their relationship in labor. The tools are elevated to the same dignity as the product. No longer are they forgotten after the work is done.

Paul Anthony Smith

Walk Bout #10

2014

picotage on C-print with spray paint
10 inches x 8 inches

(b. 1988 — St. Ann Bay, Jamaica) Paul Anthony Smith uses a ceramic tool to laboriously pick away at the surface material of photographic portraits of the people of Jamaica and the broader African diaspora, a unique technique called picotage that’s loosely derived from an 18th-century French textile process. The resultant texture creates a soft, shimmering surface that is as seductive as it is negating. Interested in ideas of hierarchy, culture, and identity, Smith always obscures his subjects’ faces and sometimes their entire bodies. The effect of the treatment is part haunting and part mask, yet always an erasure of self. These photographs provoke questions of the difficulty of developing a self (especially by members of disempowered communities) in hierarchical cultural structures. Here, the hint of the subjects being photographed is alluring, but there’s also something melancholy about never penetrating the surface to see who they are.