GEOMETRY IN THE EXPANDED FIELD: 8 PROPOSITIONS

"Let no one enter here who is not a geometer." - Plato

"Geometric art has served to hide the fact that the modern deployment of the geometric is stranger than the strange myths of traditional societies." - Peter Halley

"The revelation that particle interactions, the most basic events in nature, may be consequences of geometry significantly advances a decades long effort to reformulate quantum field theory..." - Natalie Wolchove

As virtual worlds become increasingly immersive, geometric art has expanded into the space of the gallery to become an equally interactive experience. While geometric abstraction in the first half of the twentieth century revolved around a discourse of purity and essentialism, and the postmodern moment of Neo-Geo reacted against this transcendental gesture by pointing to how geometry is always already inscribed in one cultural narrative or another, today's geometric artists see geometry as part of the world. Whether confining us, confronting us or being something we simply make use of, geometry is implicated in almost every part of day-to-day living.

Virtual geometries of connectivity, communication, and architecture information interpenetrate the hard geometries of domestic, public and corporate spaces in equal measure. As such, Geometry in the Expanded Field asks us to experience the complexity of the contemporary moment by examining the ways in which geometric figures permeate various school's of thought about artistic production, including sound art, light and space, video art, re-appropriation art, land art, photography, and abstract painting. Only in this exhibit, many of these previously exclusive idioms are mixed together, allowing for the emergence of a new complexity at the level of both form and content.

But even while engaging in a theater of conflicted registers, the works in Geometry in the Expanded Field still underscore the power of form to direct attention, to focus perception, and to unite a multitude of contradictions. Toward this end, this group show of new works challenges our ability to receive and interpret forms that are still considered to be engaged in the discussion of classical, ideal, and even 'eternal' forms. Furthermore, recent discoveries in quantum mechanics even presuppose that geometry may be the sole basis of all particle physics as well as an entre into how we understand both the visible and the invisible world.

Following on these recent revelations, the works in Geometry in the Expanded Field give us the possibility of moving beyond polemics about the purity of form or culturally inscribed narratives to engage with a realm of more direct questions about order and disorder, which geometric art is uniquely suited to address. Of course, it is the geometric impulse in art that renews the promise of such inquiries by providing us, not with examples or explanations, but with new expressions given over to us as objects of contemplation. As such, we are never really beyond the 'geometric moment' in art, but instead, find ourselves 'eternally' subject to a series of mathematical investments in the field of aesthetic ideation.

Artists in the show: Rachel Goodwin, April Friges, Brian Thomas Jones, Michelle Jane Lee, Mark Pomilio, Traivs Rice, Gregory Simoncic and Denise Yaghmourian.

Rachel Goodwin

Originally from Texas, Rachel Goodwin is an artist who works predominately in abstracted paintings and wrapped sculptural forms, which analyze concepts of over-consumption, object permanence, and self-perception. Goodwin received her BFA from the University of Texas at Tyler and is a current painting MFA candidate at Arizona State University. She has had works exhibited across the Southwest, with works presently exhibited in Beijing and Qing Zhou, China; with the forthcoming inclusion of Studio Visit Magazine’s 2016 Summer Edition this year. 

April Friges

April Friges was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 2010 received her MFA in studio art from The University of California, Irvine.  Her work has been shown in galleries and museums such as LAXART, Los Angeles, CA (2010); Autonomie, Los Angeles, CA (2011); The Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS (2012); MOCAD, Detroit, MI (2013); ForYourArt, Los Angeles, CA (2014); FilterSpace, Chicago, IL (2015); and MoCP, Chicago, IL (2016). Friges lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she is the assistant professor of the BFA photography program at Point Park University.  

Brian Thomas Jones

Brian Thomas Jones lives and works in Los Angeles.  He holds a MFA in Studio Art from Claremont Graduate University and a BFA in Film & Television Production from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.  In January 2016 He was included in MAS Attack/Tempe at Fine Art Complex 1101 and has exhibited in numerous group shows in Los Angeles.  His practice includes sculpture, installation and photography. 

Michelle Jane Lee

Michelle Jan Lee spent her chilhood in Seoul, Korea, and then moved to the US to study at The School of Art Institute of Chicago. Lee participated in the Yale University School of Art: Norfolk Residency Program and has shoen in cities across the US and Europe including New York, Chicago, Los Angles, Copenhagen and Berlin

Mark Pomilio

Mark Pomilio’s current research has focused on creating images, which embody principles of geometry, fractals, cloning and single cell manipulation. These interests have led to invitations to lecture nationally, on topics as diverse as art and mathematics and the role the visual arts can play, in understanding the social ramifications of advances in the Life Sciences. His artwork has been featured in solo museum and gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Xu Beihong Art Academy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China, the Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salapetriere, in Paris, France, and Art Resources Transfer, in New York City. Originally from Philadelphia, Mr. Pomilio is currently living and working in Phoenix, Arizona. Where he is an Associate Professor within the School of Art, at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

Travis Rice

Travis Rice is an artist currently residing in Tempe, AZ where he is in his second year attending Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts studying for an MFA in painting and drawing. Originally from Elkhart, IN, he initially studied design at Ball State University where he received a Bachelor in Landscape Architecture. Influenced by his background in architecture his work incorporates 3D modeling to create complex hard edge compositions that give an illusion of space through both form and materiality. His work was recently included in the 35th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition at Bradley University in Peoria, IL and was chosen as one of only 40 artists out of nearly 1,000 applicants to be published in the New American Paintings MFA Annual.

Gregory Simoncic

Gregory Simoncic is a multimedia sculptor battling with ideas of desire, relationships, and the human connection to the internet of things. He was one of twenty artists selected for the 2014 Digital Stone Project residency in Gramolazzo, Italy. There, the artists carved marble sculptures using robotic mills in tandem with traditional methods. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally. He now lives and works in New York City, and has an MFA in Fine Art from Parsons.