Fuller Lodge hosts group exhibition that explores relationships between art and technology
A group exhibit of works by 27 New Mexico artists and one Coloradan opening today at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos explores the relationship — or lack of it — between art and technology. The show’s curator, John Werenko, said estimating that relationship is a subjective judgment at best.
In his case, Werenko told the Journal, his decision that there is a relationship between art and science was based on the “telos” of the activities. Telos is a Greek word that means “the end or purpose for which something is done.” Werenko, who also is executive director of the Art Center, said he decided that art and science spring from the same creative passion: the idea of “seeing analogies where everybody else sees just bare facts,” to quote O.M. Ungers.
“Art, technology and science share a telos, or purpose, by giving evidence of design in nature through the use of analogies and a shared logical scheme,” Werenko said.
It is fitting that The Art Center at Fuller Lodge is the host for this intriguing exhibition, Werenko added, “because the community of Los Alamos for the past 65 years has been the center for scientific and technological research of historical proportions and of the highest intellectual order.”
A significant number of the 28 artists in the show have been or are practicing scientists as well as artists, he said. They are engineers, medical doctors, biologists and psychologists. Several are married to scientists, some of whom have worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. One of the artists participating is Hilda Appel Volkin, whose husband was a physicist at LANL in the 1970s.
Appel Volkin herself was the first director of the Art Center. The couple is retired in Albuquerque, where she maintains her studio and continues to produce works that are science- and technology-related. For this show, her pieces are anodized aluminum sculptures with LED lighting and a high metallic finish.
Many artists
For the show, Werenko drew on personal contacts with some of the artists in the Los Alamos area. He also solicited the help of Matt Celesky and David Baccadutre at the Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque; Douglas Fairfield at the Albuquerque Museum, Susan Latham at The Forum of Science and Art in Santa Fe, and Tyler Anderson of Matrix/New Grounds Print Workshop in Albuquerque.
From Los Alamos, Melissa Alexander’s “Knitted Genome Project” adds a humorous touch, while Kent Wood’s photos of lightning bolts are startling in their clarity. Gordon McDonough returns to the Art Center with a wood-and-steel mechanical device involving ball bearings and a crank that he calls “Viscosity — An Homage to Arthur Ganson.”
Bradford L. Wright’s “The Liberation of Graph Paper” makes light fun of engineering models, while Suzannah Smith’s close-up photographs of a lighthouse lens have a science fiction quality. One of the most unusual works in this show is a ring by Omar Juveland. When the stone is opened, there’s a USB flash drive hidden inside. Deborah Balog brings fractal giclee prints, and Jerry Beguin’s digital art photographs and mixed media in ink, acrylic and colored pencil are reminiscent of works by Paul Gauguin. David Delano, a cartoonist and serious figure and portrait painter, has blended those talents in his “Score 1” and “OHH!” depicting an ace World War II pilot in action. Ellen Randall’s two untitled works look like patterns produced on a photo plate of emanations from a particle accelerator.
Mike Edge of Abiquiu is a recent addition to New Mexico. Edge’s sculpture is made of painted steel and his elegant black and white prints project a feeling of an engineer’s precision in both thought and process.
Several artists who work with ideas compatible to the theme of science and technology were recommended by Fairfield. Marilyn Christenson’s “Cosmic Source,” a work in encaustic, and Bonny Lhotka’s time-related art works describe a universe governed by quantum mechanics. Lhotka is the sole Coloradan in the show; she lives in Boulder.
Museum recommended
The Natural History Museum in Albuquerque suggested Anton Friis, Mary Sundstrom, Matt Celesky, Terry Lawson Dunn and Doug Czor. Sundstrom’s paleontological images from the Cretaceous Period are diorama paintings for a dinosaur exhibition. Celesky, a graphic designer at the museum, is showing illustrations of Delabrosaurus and Megalancosaurus. Dunn, a wildlife scientist in the field of environmental communications, covers tabletops with plant forms.
Friis’ work includes a massive head titled “Ishi,” generating a feel for the anthropological. His other two works are detailed bas-reliefs of landscapes at a helicoptereye view. Czor’s works are holographic images that glow like stained glass.
Susan Latham, Leah Siegel, David Holmstrom, Ursula Freer and Susan Denniston are all artists who are affiliated with the Forum for Science and Art in Santa Fe. Latham’s metal sculptures are biomorphic crystalline structures that defy the medium. Siegel presents mercurial images in digital formats. Holmstrom’s wooden automobiles are something out of Roger Penske’s dream for NASCAR. Freer’s work is also about quantum mechanics with her digital imagery, collage and acrylic. Denniston’s art work includes several media, including jewelry and handcrafted paper.
Michael Orgel is a former medical doctor who lives and works in Tijeras. Orgel’s stone sculptures are a metaphor for the human body. Eliza Schmid brings “Circuitry of Plants,” while Diana Dearen presents traditional art subject matter through computer-enhanced digital images. The Matrix/New Grounds Print Workshop in Albuquerque proffered the work of Pamela Di Mauro, whose detailed etchings of plants and birds, Werenko said, “combine the intensity of a Durer woodcut with the surreal quality of a Redon.”
If You Go
WHAT: Art Expressions in Technology & Science
WHEN: Today through May 3; reception 5-7 p.m. today.
WHERE: The Art Center at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Avenue, Los Alamos
CONTACT: 662-9331
