Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/22/2016
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location
David B. Smith Gallery
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- Exhibition: January 22 – February 27, 2016
David B. Smith Gallery is proud to announce Michael Theodore’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, Supraliminal. This large-scale, site-specific installation is inspired by Theodore’s obsession with natural forms and processes, and employs light, sound, and kinetic motion. The work is a unique and forward-looking analog/digital hybrid, with interactive elements that are shaped by code that Theodore has written.
As with a number of Theodore’s previous installations, sensors are embedded within the structure. Supraliminal, or “existing above the threshold of consciousness,” here refers to the installation’s capacity to sense the presence of viewers and responsively alter its activity. The six 8’ x 4’ laser-cut acrylic panels forming the surface of the piece are simultaneously a mural-scale visual composition, a kind of skeletal cage and carapace, and are also windows into a mysterious environment, allowing the viewer to observe the behavior of a mechanistic yet mercurial “consciousness.” By sensing observers, Supraliminal mimics subtle animal behaviors such as bioluminescence and echolocation. Theodore, trained as a musician and composer, envelopes his audience in compositionally conceived patterns of light, sound, and motion, each of the elements linking together to form an abstract expressive language.
Alongside the installation, Theodore will be exhibiting smaller works in the project room. These largely monochromatic, laser-etched and painted works are directly linked to the means and thematic materials of the gallery installation. Evoking branches, biological organs, natural cracking patterns, and galactic structures radiating into space, these smaller, more intimate works take on the nature of quiet, introspective studies. Between the two galleries, Supraliminal addresses a sensory continuum that ranges between immersive audiovisual experiences and hushed contemplation.
Michael Theodore was born and raised in New York City, and lives in Boulder, Colorado. Inspired by observations and experiences of the natural world, Theodore creates dynamic fields of color, light, and sound in a variety of mediums. Theodore’s creative works, including interactive kinetic installations, sound and light works, moving images, and musical compositions have been presented across the United States, and in Mexico, Trinidad y Tobago, Greece, Spain, Germany, Sweden, France, Australia, Japan, and China. Theodore holds faculty appointments at the University of Colorado, Boulder with the College of Music (music composition and technology), the Department of Art and Art History (by courtesy), and is Director of the ATLAS Institute’s Center for Media, Arts and Performance, an incubator for experimental media created with technology. Theodore received degrees from Amherst College, Yale (MM), and UCSD (PhD).
David B. Smith Gallery is committed to presenting intelligent and culturally relevant exhibitions in its Denver location, featuring the region’s most important emerging talent alongside internationally recognized artists. Through its curatorial program, participation in art fairs, and extensive media coverage in publications such as Art in America and ARTnews, David B. Smith Gallery has cultivated a strong regional, national and international collector audience. The New York Times hailed the gallery as offering “an exciting contrast of cutting edge works” and The Denver Post declared that it is the “premiere commercial space” in Denver. The gallery also maintains an active publishing division, which produces exhibition catalogues and editions.