Please come to my Art Opening November 8!
VISIONARY DISTILLATIONS
@ The American Center for Physics in College Park, MD
Opening Reception and Gallery Talk
November 8 5:30-7:30pm
This is an exhibition of my paintings along with the photography of Robert Cassanova, and the sculpture of Minna Newman Nathanson at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD! The exhibition runs all the way through April 29, but I am giving a gallery talk at the opening reception on Nov 8 if you can make it! I will be premiering my new series of large oil "stellarator" paintings, based on the Stellarator Wega at the Max Planck Institut in Greifswald, Germany.
"In the landmark book "Art & Physics", retired surgeon and noted author Leonard Shlain argued that in hindsight, artists, with little or no cognizance of current developments in physics, often foreshadow "thought patterns of a scientific age not yet born" through their imagery and style. The reverse is equally rich in possibility- that findings of scientists and mathematicians can inspire aesthetic trends and individual practice. "Visionary Distillations" brings together the paintings of Kim Dylla, the photographs of Robert Cassanova, and the sculptures of Minna Newman Nathanson. While their mediums differ, they each seek out the unexpected, and using their imagination, essentialize form to reveal fundamental patterns and connections...
In Kim Dylla's art, physics and technology go hand in hand with a sophisticated understanding of computer graphics and a hyperrealistic style. Having a physicist as a father predisposed her to seein gthe inherent beauty in laboratory equipment and machinery, and to exploring space, light, and time. With college degrees in art and computer science, she honed her artistic skills by copying old masters. Her current "machine" paintings, though void of people and narrative, celebrate human creativity and the pursuit of knowledge. Existing shapes of high-energy physics equipment and laboratories are pared down to their essential forms evoking French master Paul Cezanne's famous idiom: "Everything in nature adheres to the cone, the cylinder, and the cube." Any suggestion of her subjects' indended use surrenders to the seductive interplay of light and form. Silent, cool, and forceful, the machines assume new identities and suggest a layered, enigmatic reality of their own.
Dylla generates her compositions by cropping passages of zoomed-out photographs. These in turn serve as observational references to the final paintings. Up close, the exacting photorealism loosens into painterly abstraction. Reflected surfaces coalesce into blobs of color, and edges soften, becoming permeable upon occasion. In works such as "W-50K Shield", which depics a section of a helium refridgerator at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia, her love of graphics comes through in the incorporation of found text that drives the eye in all directions. Elsewhere, rivets punctuate at rhythmic intervals, the whole compressed within a shallow space. By contrast, "Aerodynamic" based on an historic wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is set outdoors and offers a somewhat deeper perspective. An intricate nexus of cast shadows, repeated cylinders and verticals creates a mesmerizing arrangement. meanwhile, a strip of azure sky strategicaly offsets a cool palette of pale blue, grey, and brown.
With eloquence and grace, "Visionary Distillations" confirms the importance of staying open and the potential of imaginative thinking. Balancing reality with abstraction, the artists explore underlying form to reach a universal expression that transcends individual aesthetics and bridges cross-disciplinary interests.
@ The American Center for Physics in College Park, MD
Opening Reception and Gallery Talk
November 8 5:30-7:30pm
This is an exhibition of my paintings along with the photography of Robert Cassanova, and the sculpture of Minna Newman Nathanson at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD! The exhibition runs all the way through April 29, but I am giving a gallery talk at the opening reception on Nov 8 if you can make it! I will be premiering my new series of large oil "stellarator" paintings, based on the Stellarator Wega at the Max Planck Institut in Greifswald, Germany.
"In the landmark book "Art & Physics", retired surgeon and noted author Leonard Shlain argued that in hindsight, artists, with little or no cognizance of current developments in physics, often foreshadow "thought patterns of a scientific age not yet born" through their imagery and style. The reverse is equally rich in possibility- that findings of scientists and mathematicians can inspire aesthetic trends and individual practice. "Visionary Distillations" brings together the paintings of Kim Dylla, the photographs of Robert Cassanova, and the sculptures of Minna Newman Nathanson. While their mediums differ, they each seek out the unexpected, and using their imagination, essentialize form to reveal fundamental patterns and connections...
In Kim Dylla's art, physics and technology go hand in hand with a sophisticated understanding of computer graphics and a hyperrealistic style. Having a physicist as a father predisposed her to seein gthe inherent beauty in laboratory equipment and machinery, and to exploring space, light, and time. With college degrees in art and computer science, she honed her artistic skills by copying old masters. Her current "machine" paintings, though void of people and narrative, celebrate human creativity and the pursuit of knowledge. Existing shapes of high-energy physics equipment and laboratories are pared down to their essential forms evoking French master Paul Cezanne's famous idiom: "Everything in nature adheres to the cone, the cylinder, and the cube." Any suggestion of her subjects' indended use surrenders to the seductive interplay of light and form. Silent, cool, and forceful, the machines assume new identities and suggest a layered, enigmatic reality of their own.
Dylla generates her compositions by cropping passages of zoomed-out photographs. These in turn serve as observational references to the final paintings. Up close, the exacting photorealism loosens into painterly abstraction. Reflected surfaces coalesce into blobs of color, and edges soften, becoming permeable upon occasion. In works such as "W-50K Shield", which depics a section of a helium refridgerator at Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia, her love of graphics comes through in the incorporation of found text that drives the eye in all directions. Elsewhere, rivets punctuate at rhythmic intervals, the whole compressed within a shallow space. By contrast, "Aerodynamic" based on an historic wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is set outdoors and offers a somewhat deeper perspective. An intricate nexus of cast shadows, repeated cylinders and verticals creates a mesmerizing arrangement. meanwhile, a strip of azure sky strategicaly offsets a cool palette of pale blue, grey, and brown.
With eloquence and grace, "Visionary Distillations" confirms the importance of staying open and the potential of imaginative thinking. Balancing reality with abstraction, the artists explore underlying form to reach a universal expression that transcends individual aesthetics and bridges cross-disciplinary interests.