Thursday, February 1, 2019 (8-11PM)
Ringling Museum, Sarasota
The HIGH CONTRAST artists’ works contain traces of multiple processes at the same time, layered to heighten form and composition. Each artist, in their own field, explores how multiple adaptations can endlessly layer onto each other to manipulate and transform the original. Wesley Thorp contrasts film grain and the digital glitch with the seamless quality of contemporary photographs. Taylor Robenalt pairs bright white porcelain and deep black underglaze to add dimension to her ceramic works; then builds upon the matte surface with gold luster, creating a balance of intimate forms and contrasting patinas.
Through explorations of the relationship between digital and analog, Wesley Thorp fully embraces the manner in which internet culture has fundamentally changed the relationship between viewer and art object. Wesley’s introduces an experimental algorithm into portions of his photographs to intentionally render specific pixels into glitches, these appear as tears across the smooth gradient of the original. Wesley has limited control of the glitch process but utilizes his painterly technique to introduce the glitches in spaces to highlight form and content. His oil paintings add another layer to the manipulation process, working from a digitally torn image to produce a fully rendered representation of how the viewer understands portraiture and composition in the digital age. A series of GIFs extends the viewers participation into the screen, offering a space to fully engage in the glitch process.
Based in St. Pete, Wesley is furthering his education in Copyright Law to enhance his practice of internet culture and art.
Taylor Robenalt’s new body of work features clusters of flowers and animals, which appear to be bursting out of the form. Pops of bright colors evoke a sense of growth and offer a contrast to the rigidity of everyday responsibility- the black and white base. The final touches of gold luster offer a sense of purity and achievement that comes with positively facing life on a day-to-day basis. Taylor’s animal forms represent a personal emotional narrative or loyalty, unconditional love, vibrancy, freedom and reclusiveness. The clusters’ flora represent the purest form of growth and purity which appears heavily in her work. The final connection to Taylor’s personal experience is self-awareness represented by her hand, which offers a direct relationship to her emotional gestures.
Based in Sarasota, Taylor actively exhibits her work and teaches workshops throughout the U.S., this year she will also be a panel member for NCECA 2018 and an artist in Residence at Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana. www.taylorrobenaltceramics.com
Both artists presented in HIGH CONTRAST utilize different mediums to highlight their content. A commonality is found in the relationship between their artwork and the viewer’s experience of surface; juxtaposing textures to explicitly show the artists handling of materials allows the viewer to engage in the process itself.
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Museum Website + Additional Information: https://www.ringling.org/events/ringling-underground
The John & Mable Museum of Art
5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, FL 34243