Surfing the International Print World

Surfing the International Print World - Fourth Annual Exhibit

An Exhibit of Works on Paper by Nationally and Internationally known Artists using a combination of Tranditional and Digital Techniques to create their images

Beacon St. Rain Š Michael Berger

Exhibit at The Williams Gallery

8 Chambers Street, Princeton NJ.

October 9 – November 14, 1998

Opening Reception in conjunction with AENJ (Art Educators of New Jersey) Friday, October 9, 10:00 – 11:30 AM ( RSVP required for reception)

Wednesday - Saturday, 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM & by appointment.

Neo-Landscape Š George Cramer

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT: For each of these artists the digital medium is an essential part of the inspiration for their art, integral to the development of idea, imagery, and composition. Each use the computer as one of their creative tools; however, each has invented distinctively personal approaches to the digital process and the printing approach. Photography, lithography, inkjet paintings, and plotter drawings are among the techniques employed. The visual impact of these aesthetically and intellectually stimulating works demonstrates how powerful the digital medium can be in the true artist's hands. To view additional artwork by the artists you may visit the gallery web- site: http://www.wmgallery.com

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

MICHAEL BERGER grew up near New York City. He studied chemistry at Cornell University and went on to obtain a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University in 1972. Joining Polaroid Corporation in 1976, he used his technical expertise in the photographic field and holds ten patents. As one of the inventors of Polaroid Corporation's 35 mm instant slide film, he has had experience in blending art and science to create new imaging systems. For years Berger has used cameras and darkroom techniques to achieve impressionistic images, and he added the computer to his palette five years ago to achieve a new range of expression. Some of his newest images have been taken from the Princeton area. Quote: "I am fascinated with the intersection of art and technology; how technology both enables and encumbers new visions and new ways of perceiving the world around us. I have discovered that using the computer as a tool in the creative process has changed the way I take photographs, since I can pre-visualize the final digital painting. Now my original photographs are like sketches, which I use as guides and references when I paint."

GEORGE CRAMER uses the electronic art medium like other artists use a palette and brush. He creates works reminiscent of futuristic landscapes, using forms and colors to establish distances. His goal is to unite dreams with realities and present them as symbolic representations. Pixeled gradations of color embellish his vibrant landscapes, as seen in "Interiors". These pixeled textures, fascinating in their other-worldliness, can only be born from a computer - yet they flavor his compositions with a barrage of variations and nuances one might not believe possible in this medium. Cramer has broken through the stereotype and has invented ways to achieve his own brand of expression. Quote: "Underneath it all, I am making Art because I have to. I have seen too much now to not care when beauty and kindness are left behind by our developing technically oriented culture."

SUSUMU ENDO, photographer and printmaker, creates imaginative photographic images of scenes in nature and space. After years of sucessfully using manual photographic techniques, in 1982 Endo began allowing a computer system to aid in the task of creating his photographic works. Through technical means his imagery is transferred to the computer. There he can change the colors, reverse darks and lights, and stretch or modify the shapes until he arrives at what he wants from the composition. His photographic images seem not of this world, but employ a skill and beauty that challenge our sense of reality. Within his "Space and Nature" series he embodies the abstract with the representational simultaneously, depending on the viewers perspective. No way could Endo's vision be realized other than through his imaginative approach to cutting-edge computer and lithography processes.

ROMAN VEROSTKO, Profesor Emeritus, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, has pioneered the development and creative use of an artist's personal expert system "epigenetic" art - the use of computer software designed to express his personal artistic preferences and to generate totally original works of art automatically. His approach to art holds a reverence for the materials of earth and a sense of wonder about most things including circuit boards and computer language. His software is an extension of his visual ideas, by which he creates works glowing with mystery and iconic qualities reminiscent of medieval manuscripts. The prints, each unique, are plotted on rag paper, and often enhanced with a touch of gold or silver leaf applied by hand. The pen lines and brush strokes, while executed by machine, exhibit the expressive qualities of the artist's hand. Verostko's vision and procedure explore new realms of expression, unattainable through conventional means.

DAVID SCOTT LEIBOWITZ brings over twenty years of fascination with photography, video art and film to his current position as a pioneer in digital image processing. He is part of a new generation of artists who are redefining the boundaries of fine art. His work is created by the scanning of his original photographs into a computer, next modifying and manipulating them to transform them into images less representational of reality and yet expressing more. Leibowitz's interest in the alteration of the traditional photographic image began with his manipulation of Polaroid SX-70 film. His current work is most evocative of that of the great 19th century impressionists. And indeed the technique has become known as photo-impressionism.

DALE LEIFESTE , associate professor, Westchester community College, came to the computer as an art tool from the worlds of traditional film-based photography and printmaking. Using these mediums he seeks to create a common theme suggesting that although living thins cannot resist the ravages of time, their spirits will outlast their physical existence. His photo digital etchings, as in "Moment" and other prints in this series mingle silver-based photography, digital computer software, and the traditional processes of the etching plate and press. Quote by Leifeste: "Tis combination of past, present and future techniques creates a synthesis that I find very satisfying, as well as an ambience quite unlike any of the usual results of the individual processes from which thses prints are derived."

CHARLOTTE SOMMER -LANDGRAF was born in Dresden, Germany where she studied at The Academy of Fine Arts. She has worked both as a painter and sculptress, and since 1987 has channeled her artistic energies into digital print-making. Her images, rich in the use of color and shading, have a three dimensional quality that lends an ephemeral sense to her work. The mathematical formulas created for printing Ms. Landgraf's art were developed in collaboration with her husband, Prof. Dr. Dr. Landgraf until recently President of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. Quote by art critic Lehmann: "These sheets in their opulent and profound tones rather resemble the creations of OP ART – their form is based on geometric shapes which in their production and enlargement play with optical laws."

BARBARA NESSIM of New York City is an internationally known artist and educator whose works have been collected and/or exhibited at the Smithsonian, the MOMA of Sweden, The Dusseldorf Kunst Museum, the Louvre, Time and Newsweek magazines and many private collections. She holds the Chair of the Illustration Department at Parsons School of Design in New York. Her works are primarily figures directly drawn on the computer but often hand colored in watercolor or acrylics. While her works represent familiar objects and humanistic figures, they convey considerations of human endeavor, social and interpersonal issues, and accomplishment. Her recent Flag Series include: "In Red Woods, Coffee Break, Call Waiting, Tic Tac Toe". People and how they interact around the world are major themes in these Ink-Jet Prints. Her metaphorical style is known for its unique coloration and its direct approach. Her many accomplishments have made her one of the most sought after artists, speakers and educators in the nation.

LILLIAN SCHWARTZ is a pioneer in the use of the computer in the arts. She uses the computer to create works of art in graphics, film/video and special effects, and in art analysis. Her work is in major art collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Georges Pompidou Center, and the Grand Palais in Paris. She has received many awards including an Emmy, Emmy Nominations, and an Academy Award. A Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, Schwartz wrote with Laurens R. Schwartz "The Computer Artist's Handbook" (W.W. Norton 1992). For many years she has been consulting with major corporations involved with computers and technology. Quote from Arno Penzias (Vice President and Chief Scientist, Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs) "What we know as computer art began in December 1968,when Lillian Schwartz grasped a light pen and began to draw."