Tuesday 01.04.11
First Thursday Picks January 2011


johnson-splinter.jpg
Scott Johnson, "Splinter #2," detail

Continuing the light in winter theme, Chambers@916 presents Incidentals, works in light by Scott Johnson. The body of work "plays with flatness, dimension, and atmosphere by using light as a substance, producing halos on reflective surfaces that evoke such phenomena as light on the horizon, glowing snowdrifts or the corona around the sun during an eclipse." (Full disclosure: This blogger works for Chambers@916.)

Opening reception • 6-8:30pm • January 6
Chambers@916 • 916 NW Flanders • 503.227.9398

http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2011/01/first_thursday_58.html

The Oregonian

First Thursday critic's picks

Published: Wednesday, January 05, 2011, 5:00 PM
Unlike the weather, the local art world has had little trouble thawing out from the cold. That's because some local dealers spent part of December under the warmer skies of Miami at the high-powered art fairs that have become an annual rite for cognoscenti, collectors and various kinds of cultural aspirants.

But now they're back in Portland, to cooler climes and a cooler reality. The month's offerings again highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the local scene -- lots of talent but not enough serious collectors or galleries to showcase them properly.

But for the general public on First Thursday, none of this matters much. The free monthly art walk is an evening of casual enjoyment. Here are a few stops to keep in mind while touring the Pearl District and downtown galleries.



Chambers@916: Scott Johnson's new show could pair quite well with the light and space works of Hap Tivey and Anna Von Mertens across the street at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Johnson projects subtle, radiant, optical light effects -- illusions -- onto various surfaces.

Also, Ethan Jackson continues his similarly rigorous space-and-time-bending exploration of projected imagery using mirrors and different surfaces. (916 N.W. Flanders St.; chambersgallery.com)

Chambers Gallery- Portland Oregon- Opening January 6th, 2011

Scott Johnson, Incidentals & Ethan Jackson, Strait
January 06 - 29, 2011
Opening reception January 6   6 - 8:30pm 
      Scott Johnson: The body of work in Incidentals skirts the ground between materiality and representation. It plays with flatness, dimension, and atmosphere by using light as a substance, producing halos on reflective surfaces that evoke such phenomena as light on the horizon, glowing snowdrifts or the corona around the sun during an eclipse. Informed by the tradition of trompe l’oeil painting and the history of virtual spaces, Incidentals explores our long-time enthrallment with illusion, offering simple alterations of the picture plane that are meant to be easily discernible without reducing the magic of the optical experience.

Ethan Jackson: Strait is an unconventional video work in which distorted imagers swirl together on a pedestal’s surface. Viewed in the accompanying cylindrical mirrors, the images resolve into paired elemental landscapes.

About Us, The Look of Nowhere and Jezebel Conceptual art sets the stage at BMoCA.

http://www.westword.com/2008-07-10/culture/about-us-the-look-of-nowhere-and-jezebel/2/


About Us, The Look of Nowhere and Jezebel
Conceptual art sets the stage at BMoCA.
A A AComments (0) By Michael Paglia Thursday, Jul 10 2008
...continued from page 1
There's no indication of which direction to go as you enter the East Gallery; the space to the right is fairly well lit, while the left is almost completely darkened, so it makes sense to follow the light. This initial part of the show is dominated by a set of glass-topped tables lined up along the south wall called the "Tables of Inadvertence." The tables are covered with all manner of debris, including bits of wood, enigmatic contraptions and what look like dead birds, or at least their feathers.

Beyond this are two hemispheric mirrors, such as those you'd see in a convenience store. As you move forward, the exhibit gets darker and darker. You go past "The Rake of Evening," a floor-bound box with mirrors at the bottom. The crescendo of The Look of Nowhere is a large glass box titled "The Infinity Room." Viewers look through its transparent walls, which catch the light and reflect the contents: a cracked mud floor.


"The Infinity Room," by Scott Johnson, clay, glass, mirrors and other materials.
Details
Through September 6, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th Street, Boulder, 303-443-2122, www.bmoca.org.For a complete slide show of this exhibit, go to slideshow.westword.com.
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Mark AddisonCarla GannisScott JohnsonVik MunizVisual Arts
From my point of view, an installation rises or falls on whether the artist is able to completely command a given space. It goes without saying that Johnson has done that, transforming the East Gallery into something that's out of this world.

The last of the three exhibits at BMoCA is Jezebel, a Carla Gannis solo displayed upstairs in the funky and tiny Union Works Gallery. Gannis, who lives in New York, where she teaches at the Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts, has been interested in digital photography since the 1990s. In the Jezebel pieces — which, like the works in About Us..., are also examples of conceptual realism — Gannis has appropriated imagery from the popular imagination as expressed in movies. Her subject matter, as indicated by the show's title, is the immoral woman, or femme fatale. Gannis creates scenes where, according to her artist's statement, "sexuality, power and class issues reverberate."

Many of the photos show the various Jezebel characters sitting or even dancing, but in one, "The Alley," she's been murdered and is lying on the ground, surrounded by police. I also was really struck by the wind-up music box that requires viewers to look through a peephole to see it.

Oh, I know, as a friend said when I was telling her about Jezebel, all you'd need to do is drop a stone and you'll hit an artist doing simulations of reality in posed and doctored-up digital prints. But as common as Gannis's approach is, this group of works is really engaging.

As this trio of offerings makes clear, BMoCA is a reliable source for first-rate shows of contemporary art, conceptual-realist and otherwise, and the credit goes to director Joan Markowitz and curator Kirsten Gerdes. Working together, the two have made the place one of the top aesthetic attractions in the state.

BMOCA- THE LOOK OF NOWHERE / SCOTT JOHNSON


















THE LOOK OF NOWHERE / SCOTT JOHNSON
Scott Johnson installation “The Look of Nowhere” investigates the way language can obscure what it tries to name, losing sight of what it means to convey. He states, “I believe words cast shadows and images are buckets, riddled with holes. This is to say there is a certain blindness inherent in the processes of naming and depicting, if not a certain distortion of what is named or depicted.

Johnson was born in 1969 and grew up in the Colorado Rockies. He obtained his BFA from The University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His work as an artist has been informed by such as experiences as herding cows on the Navajo Reservation, traveling upon the Silk Road and living in Venice, Italy. He presently teaches at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

http://www.bmoca.org/2008/05/the-look-of-nowhere-scott-johnson/

Light | Drift

http://www.5280.com/events/2010-10-31

EVENTS
Light | Drift
The RMCAD campus was originally a sanatorium and medical research site. Longtime friends and artists Scott Johnson and Ethan Jackson will revert the former sun-room for patients into an eerie gallery using projected hologram images that create a dreamlike atmosphere. Mon-Sat 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

DATE: Oct 15, 2010 4:00 pm     - Dec 3, 2010 4:00 pm   
COST: Free
VENUE: Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
MORE INFO:
In the Philip J. Steele Gallery is located in the Mary Harris Auditorium Building.

Light does the heavy lifting in duo's multimedia exhibition

http://www.denverpost.com/art/ci_16641327
























ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Light does the heavy lifting in duo's multimedia exhibition
By Kyle MacMillan
The Denver Post
POSTED: 11/19/2010 01:00:00 AM MST


(Cyrus McCrimmon | The Denver Post)
In a multimedia exhibition titled "Light Drift," Ethan Jackson and Scott Johnson challenge perceptions via subtle explorations of such polarities as light and dark, calmness and movement, and two- and three-dimensionality.

The focal point of the show at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, 1600 Pierce St. in Lakewood, is a massive camera obscura, which uses a series of simple lenses to project ever-changing images of the sky and surrounding trees onto the ceiling of the school's Rotunda Pavilion.

The collaborative installation harks back to the room's use decades ago as a sunny sanitarium for tuberculosis patients, and the addition of antique beds and a rocking chair reinforces that connection.

On view concurrently in the Steele Gallery are video works and static sculptures by the two artists, who are both graduates of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Johnson is a member of the art faculty at Colorado College, and Jackson resides in Portland, Ore.

Rooted in 1960s and '70s conceptualism, these works build on past artistic experimentation and marry old and new technology in quietly intriguing if not necessarily broadly appealing ways. Kyle MacMillan

"Light Drift" runs through Dec. 3. Free. 303-225-8596 or rmcad.edu/exhibitions.



Read more: Light does the heavy lifting in duo's multimedia exhibition - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/art/ci_16641327#ixzz19pjZYTD7
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Ethan Jackson & Scott Johnson






































If you haven’t already, you all need to check out the new work up on all the gallery spaces. Julie Puma’s Early Onset is in the upstairs Rude Gallery, and Ethan Jackson & Scott Johnson’s Light Drift is in both the Philip J Steele Gallery and the Rotunda.

We will be having an interview with Julie Puma about her show.

http://rmcadlife.wordpress.com/



The show I’ve personally become obsessed with is the Camera Obscura in the Rotunda. Maybe it’s a little biased that I, as a Photo Major, would love the camera related show but… have you seen it? It’s so beautiful. These guys did a great job in bringing in the atmosphere that the JCRS patients would’ve seen from the room. You get to experience what it was like in their shoes, for what was possibly their last few months of life.



On the night of the opening Ian Cooke filled the room with the sounds of cello and voice. The music aspect really helped bring the show together. If you do get a chance to see the show, have someone come that knows how to play the piano. You’ll see what we mean.

There was one chair in the middle of the room. When you sit in it you can allow yourself to experience what the patients experience. I had a hard time with this.



After the sun set, the eeriness I have felt on this campus before came through.  Knowing the background of the school and what has happened, what these people suffered through in this building and on this site in general. What happens for them when the sun disappeared? One can get lost in the beauty of our campus, what happened every night when it was no longer visible? I didn’t believe I could handle the true emotions that followed those thoughts so when I decided to finally leave the room. Those patients were strong human beings.

I don’t want to ruin the magic entirely… that said, you should all check out this show. Highly recommended.

and please check out Ian Cooke’s music.

http://www.last.fm/music/Ian+Cooke

- Alejandra Reyes

LIGHT/ DRIFT RMCAD

http://www.rmcad.edu/visiting-artist-scholar-designer-program/2010-12-03/scott-johnson-and-ethan-jackson

Friday, December 3, 2010
RMCAD welcomes artists Scott Johnson and Ethan Jackson for the third installment of our Public Lecture Series, brought to you by the VASD Program. They will give a public lecture at 6:00 pm in the Mary Harris Auditorium on Friday, December 3.

In their lecture, "Converging Parallels," Jackson and Johnson will address the work in their exhibition, Light | Drift and their history of shared interests. They will provide visual and historical context for key aspects of the works in the show and present important works from past years of parallel production. Their discussion will include ideas of vision and representation, art function and practice, and relationships to meaning and rationality. Jackson and Johnson will also address the collaborative process in present and previous works.

Ethan Jackson is a visual artist working in optical installation, lens-based imagery, and photographic media. His current projects are camera obscura based transformations of architectural space into illuminated, contemplative environments. Other works deal with aspects of landscape representation and the notion of place; illusions of space from painting to lens-based representation; themes of violence, mortality and morality in vernacular imagery. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and Williams College. He is based in Portland, Oregon. Visit his website at: ethanjackson.net.

Scott Johnson was born in 1969 and grew up in the Colorado Rockies. He obtained his BFA from The University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His work as an artist has been informed by such as experiences as herding cows on the Navajo Reservation, traveling upon the Silk Road and living in Venice, Italy. He presently teaches at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Visit his website at: scjworks.com

Hypothesis: Process in Science and Art is a multi-disciplinary exhibit and an experiment highlighting the connections between the scientific and artistic processes.

http://www.uccs.edu/~goca/ART/PAST/2010/HYPOTHESIS.html

 Hypothesis: a suggested explanation for a group of facts or phenomena, either accepted as a basis for further verification (working hypothesis) or accepted as likely to be true.

Hypothesis: Process in Science and Art is a multi-disciplinary exhibit and an experiment highlighting the connections between the scientific and artistic processes.

The hypothesis is the heart of the exhibit - positing that processes followed by artists and scientists have much in common. Hypothesis explores these scientific and artistic processes and is itself an experiment.

UCCS Anthropology, Chemistry, and Geography faculty are partnering with artists who have responded to the faculty's research and data in sculptural and video installations. Process is examined through both the faculty's research and the artist's finished work, bringing about greater understanding of the inherent connections between the scientific and creative processes.

Curated by Daisy McConnell, co-director of GOCA, the opening of Hypothesis coincides with the Grand Reopening of the Science Building (newly renamed "Centennial Hall") at UCCS. The Gallery of Contemporary Art at UCCS is located in the newly renovated Centennial Hall. Highlighting the interconnectedness of the arts and the sciences is the basis for this experimental exhibit.

HYPOTHESIS LECTURE SERIES
A series of lectures accompany the exhibit HYPOTHESIS:  Process in Science and Art. Each lecture will feature a faculty member and artist partnered in the exhibit speaking individually about their work, then coming together to discuss the interconnections between their respective processes.

September 30    HYDROPHOBICITY & INSTALLATION ART
Scott Johnson & Curt Holder

Scott Johnson was born in 1969 and grew up in the Colorado Rockies. He obtained his BFA from The University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His work as an artist has been informed by such as experiences as herding cows on the Navajo Reservation, traveling upon the Silk Road and living in Venice, Italy. He presently teaches at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Science and art meet in "Hypothesis" | art, hypothesis, science - Entertainment - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Science and art meet in "Hypothesis" | art, hypothesis, science - Entertainment - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO