CrossMediale 1 04.-28.08 Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery , Chicago USA

CrossMediale 1

Austria – Germany – Japan – Netherlands – Poland – USA

An exhibition of American and International art in new media curated by Gosia Koscielak.

Exhibition Dates: August 4 – 28, 2006

Opening reception/vernissage: Friday, August 4th, 2006, 6:00 pm – 10 pm

Special events:

August 4th, 2006 6 - 10 pm
Annette Barbier and Drew Browning
You Are Here, Pure Data & GEM projection onto the exterior of the gallery building, visible from the Kennedy Expressway (I-94), near exit 48B (North Ave.)

August 4th and 25th, 2006 6 - 10 pm
La Bande Sans Fin electro-audio-visual performances

Participating artists:
Mark Baldridge, Annette Barbier, Hans Bernhard, David Blum, Drew Browning, Ben Chang, Miroslaw Chudy, Melinda Fries, Catherine Forster, Scott Kildall, Toshihiro Komatsu, Lizvlx, Zbigniew Oksiuta, Erik Olofsen, Richard Purdy, Silvia Ruzanka, Galina Shevchenko, UBERMORGEN, David Zerlin, La Bande Sans Fin.

CrossMediale 1 is an international exhibition focusing on new media art. The concept of the installation of this show allows the viewer to move freely between artworks produced in vr, photography, and video, amid images derived from quantum mechanics, cosmology, computer programming, and fractal geometry – as exemplified by the encaustic on wood pieces by New York artist Richard Purdy. Artworks included in this exhibition traverse media and concepts.

Chicago digital artists Ben Chang, Silvia Ruzanka, and Mark Baldridge present virtual reality works. Mark Baldridge’s vr work ChiSky is inspired by the paintings of Roger Brown, a Chicago Imagist, while Ben Chang’s vr work is a virtual kinetic sculpture based on permutations of pieces from the IKEA catalog

Video works are by Catherine Forster, Scott Kildall, Erik Olofsen, Galina Shevchenko, and Zbigniew Oksiuta. The exhibition includes a special video project, Spatium Gelatum (congealed space), by Zbigniew Oksiuta. This project, which examines dynamic systems that transfer information and energy through liquid medium, is a crossover of architecture, art, and the biological sciences. It was presented at the 2004 La Biennale di Venezia, the 9th International Architecture Exhibition and ArchiLab, La Ville à Nu, 6e Rencontres Internationales d ’Architecture d ’Orléans in France.

Erik Olofsen, and Toshihiro Komatsu display photographs. Dutch artist Erik Olofsen presents Mugshot photo as well as Shift, a video installation consisting of a double video projection of wooden shapes gliding over and past each other like drifting continents. The projections touch, causing the images to move from and towards one another. Sometimes both projections fall “into the fold” and create a new entity. The blank spaces–the emptiness in between–become as tangible as the saw-toothed wooden forms. The scale and perspective transform, hinting at geopolitical shifts.

UBERMORGEN presents the ART FID (2005) painting series, featuring digital prints on canvas, which portray, magnified on a monochrome background, the structure of round RFID chips. UBERMORGEN.COM’s focus on “the pixel as the molecule” and technology as a hidden demon relates also to the technology industries newest gadgets -- RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips are one of the leading technologies of the future: an identification system that can collect diverse information about the products it is attached to as well as the person that has made purchase of the product. The ART FID series was shown for the first time during ART 36 Basel, announced by a press release – a media hack in pure. UBERMORGEN.COM's style – talking about an experimental initiative by the same Art Basel: the introduction of the RFID technologies into the art system, providing visitors immediate access to information about all artistic works being presented, as well as access fot gallerists into the financial situation and the purchasing power of potential buyers. Recently reviewed in ARTFORUM, UBERMORGEN’s collaborative project GWEI—aka Google Will Eat Itself—tackles Google's dominance of the Internet. UBERMORGEN is an artist duo from Vienna, Austria–Lizvlx and Hans Bernhard–and represents contemporary European techno-fine-art avant-garde.

Special events include YOU ARE HERE, Pure Data & GEM projection by Drew Browning and Annette Barbier onto the outside of the gallery building at the 4th floor level and visible from the Kennedy Expressway (Interstate 94), near exit 46B. Further, two electro-audio-visual performances by La Bande Sans Fin, a Chicago based multimedia artistic team formed by David Zerlin and David Blum, will take place.