Understanding Drips: A Dr. Armbruster Adventure in Research by Keith Garubba Opens at BoxHeart Gallery A Humorous and Skeptical Critique of the Relationship Between Art and Science, the Exhibition celebrates the Ornamented Spectacles and Exhilarating Spirit that Can Thrive at this Intersection. Exhibition: Understanding Drips: A Dr. Armbruster Adventure in Research by multidisciplinary artist Keith Garubba
Venue: BoxHeart Gallery, 4523 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15224
Location: 2nd Floor Gallery
Dates: August 23rd to September 30th, 2016
Reception with the Artist: Saturday, August 27th, 5 to 8 pm From August 23rd to September 30th, BoxHeart Gallery presents Understanding Drips: A Dr. Armbruster Adventure in Research by Keith Garubba. What happens when we over-aestheticize our scientific pursuits? What happens when we overanalyze our artistic creations? Understanding Drips: A Dr. Armbruster Adventure in Research is an exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Keith Garubba that continues the rich fiction of Dr. Armbruster as he tries to understand “Drips” through scientific research. Prints, paintings, and sculptural artworks represent snapshots and examples from “Dr. A’s” experiments, revealing fragments of this protagonist’s pursuits, studies, and interpersonal relationships. Organized by Nicole Capozzi and Joshua Hogan, owners of BoxHeart Gallery, the artwork selected for Understanding Drips: A Dr. Armbruster Adventure in Research is intended to be a humorous and skeptical critique of the relationship between Art and Science, while celebrating the ornamented spectacles and exhilarating spirit that can thrive at this intersection. About the Exhibition
There is a disconnection between the fields of art and science no matter how far they seemingly overlap. Dr. Armbruster (Dr. A), a fictional scientist that collects and studies artist “Drips”, is a device that Garubba uses to negotiate fragments of an authentic scientific investigation as an artist. Even in this fiction, Garubba believes that the Dr. A persona has allowed him to put a genuine non-diegetic investigation in motion, parallel to the diegetic investigation that the persona pursued himself. The function of the Dr. A persona is not storytelling in the form of art. Rather, Garubba sees the artwork he creates as individual meditations on the relationship between art and science floating atop a unifying fiction. Garubba presents two sides of Dr A. The first side represents Dr. A’s public face. With a corporate aesthetic, a viewer is offered all the branding and imaging that Dr. A would utilize to push his ideas. The second side presents Dr. A’s trials, experimentation, and working environment: a look behind the screen.
Garubba’s artwork is conceived through his background in printmaking and sculpture. Silkscreen supports, whether paper, glass, or other, become the backdrop for the accumulation of drawn images and notes, painted surfaces, and laser cut objects. The “Drips” take many forms, different in trajectory and qualities. Some are cutouts. Some have been administered into a wet surface, floated within resin. Others exist within flat cages, like paintings contained in a utilitarian frame, restrained from escape. Garubba’s goal as an artist, even if momentary and absurd, is to invite a viewer to believe with him. It is through belief that these “Drips” come true. Much like a drip, there is a hidden life to the art/science myth. Deep in the mesh of the liminal screen between art and science, something powerfully meaningful yet potentially dangerous resides. Garubba (b. 1987) is an artist and educator living and working in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. As a creative practitioner working in print media, multimedia installations, and interactive artworks, Garubba takes a multi-faceted approach to investigating questions regarding beliefs and myths in science and art. He graduated from Keystone College in LaPlume, Pennsylvania as the Outstanding Graduate in 2010. In 2014, he earned his Masters in Fine Arts from The Ohio State University. Most recently, Keith was awarded the Arts Ovation Award by the Allentown Arts Commission and named the Emerging Artist of the Year. He is currently a member of the faculty at the Baum School of Art, where he teaches children’s classes, comic art to high school students, and outreach programming in Allentown elementary schools, bridging science and art in 5th grade classrooms. As a proud artist member of Boxheart Gallery in Pittsburgh, the Printmakers Society of the Lehigh Valley, and other professional groups, Garubba exhibits his work regularly throughout Pennsylvania and the United States. Public Reception
Understanding Drips: A Dr. Armbruster Adventure in Research by Keith Garubba. will be on exhibit from August 23rd to September 30th in BoxHeart’s 2nd floor Gallery. Don’t miss a demonstration of the effects of a vacuum on “Drips” by one of Dr. A’s interns at 6 pm. The exhibition coincides with BoxHeart’s main gallery exhibit, Thomas Bigatel: Giving Up the Ghost (and select visual reflections). The reception with the artists will be held Saturday, August 27th from 5 to 8pm. It is free and open to the public. Visitor Information
Admission: Free and open to the public. The 1st floor (main gallery) of BoxHeart Gallery may be accessed using a ramp. The 2nd floor (gallery space) is not accessible by wheelchair.
Gallery Hours: Sun, 1-5 pm; Tues, 11-6 pm; Wed – Sat, 10-6 pm. BoxHeart Gallery is closed on Mondays. For general information, call 412.687.8858 or visit the gallery online at:
www.boxheartgallery.com
