March 9 - June 1, 2013

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 9, 6-8pm

Members-Only Preview & Talk, 4-5:30pm

Flatlanders & Surface Dwellers is a group exhibition featuring diverse visual art media that explore the intimate and exotic realm of surface texture which evokes visceral, multi-sensory responses. Throughout the history of art making, the artist’s relationship with surface has been a serious consideration. Renaissance artists, striving for illusion, expected the viewer to ignore the surface. Modernists embraced the surface and made it a primary consideration. Postmodernity does whatever it feels like with surface. Now, the digital revolution has allowed viewers to “interact with” the surfaces of gadgets; but still, an illusion is all that is ultimately permitted. This leaves the curious soul of the viewer with the desire to touch, connect, cut, penetrate, peel away and expose layers. As artists, we are aware that surface is ours to manipulate, whether it is a mask of superficiality, a final layer of honesty or a cloak of mystery. The book Flatland, written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott, is loosely referenced in the exhibition, as it provides a philosophical look at a two-dimensional world, exploring abstract concepts of shape, line and point, and highlighting “a world within the surface.” This exhibition is curated by Lea Anderson, and artists were selected by both invitation and a call for submissions.

ARTISTS INCLUDE:

Related Events:

WORKSHOP: Saturday, March 30, 10am-1pm
Experimental Ceramic Monoprinting

SCREENING: Wednesday, April 3, 7:30pm
Experiments in Cinema v8.53 Pre-Festival Teaser

ARTIST TALK: Wednesday, April 17, 6pm (at CNM) 
Melissa Gwyn: Fabergenic

WORKSHOP: Sunday, April 28, 9am-4pm
Wax/Image/Surface: Possibilities in Encaustic Collage

ARTIST TALK/DEMO: Saturday, May 11, 3pm
Nicole Dextras: Urban Forages {house of eco-drifters}

Articles:

read: Beyond the Surface at 516 ARTS, by Eva Avenue, Pyragraph Online Magazine, March 2013

Special thanks to Basement Films, Bella Roma B&B, Elia's Kitchen, KUNM Radio 89.9 FM, Don Mickey Designs, National Hispanic Cultural Center and Stubblefield Screenprint. This exhibition is made possible in part by McCune Charitable Foundation and The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation.