Davidson Gallery presents Impossible Objects, an exhibition featuring the work of Frea Buckler, Jenna Krypell, Gabi Mitterer, Ricardo Paniagua, Richard Roth, and Matthew Shlian. The term “impossible object” generally refers to two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects that cannot physically exist as such. These optical illusions are accepted or rejected by the brain which, even after understanding their illusory nature, can still have trouble making sense of the image.
The exhibition consists of sculptural work that is a take on those illusory figures. Each sculpture uses geometric abstraction or repetition of form and references or pays deference to various genres, including (but not limited to) Op-Art, Concretism, and Neo-plasticism. All the sculptures in Impossible Objects are highly detailed, crafted, and finished, utilizing line and color to high effect. The combinations can be unsettling even while being aesthetically luscious and with a visual style that lures the viewer’s eye, whether intentionally or sub-consciously.
Frea Buckler is a multi-disciplinary artist who has rejected the digital and makes everything by hand, to get as close to the process as possible. Her bold, abstract geometric works suggest probable but impossible forms resembling unfolded boxes or origami – bending, folding and opening out in different directions. They play with illusion and perception, they fit and don’t fit, there are loose ends and spaces in between. She lives and works in Bristol, UK.
Jenna Krypell’s work is an interpretation of people’s everyday movements, reduced to an exploration of two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. The pieces are created with the notion of displacement and variation based on the context in which they are presented. She works in Brooklyn, NY.
Digital imagery dominates and influences our everyday perception and visual and interpolation and grid models form the basic components of visual display in computer graphics and animation. Gabi Mitterer’s interest is piqued by a “translation” of these practices into traditional media. In the case of her NOC_ (Net On Cube) works, the grid structure seems to distort and question the precise cube sculpture through a form of morphing. Mitterer lives and works in Sankt Florian, Austria.
Ricardo Paniagua is known to evolve multiple bodies of work concurrently within his growing oeuvre. Pulling from art movements such as the Pattern and Decoration Movement, Op-Art, Contemporary Islamic Art, Minimalism, Internet/Post-Internet Art among others and coupled with having a keen eye for detail that can be traced back to a lineage of master tile artisans, one finds unusual sensibilities juxtaposed against multitudinous high-craft approaches and articulated processes. He lives and works in Dallas, TX.
Richard Roth’s works claim object status (as opposed to window status) enabling them to tap into the expansive 3-D polychrome universe – product and package design, nature, architecture, masks, custom cars, and fashion. The paintings’ box-like proportions allow a wide range of new issues, both formal and content-related, continuing its conversation with the contested legacy of modernism. He lives and works in Camarillo, CA.
Matthew Shlian is an artist/designer and founder of the Initiative Artist Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His work extends from drawings to large scale installations to collaborations with leading scientists at the University of Michigan. His work for the National Science Foundation explores paper folding structures on the macro level translated to the nano-scale. He lives and works in Ann Arbor, MI.