#miller gallery

[rickstevensart]

Thank you Miller Gallery for a beautiful show!

exhibition artwork

[rickstevensart]

Rick's new show, Familiar Connections opens tonight at Miller Gallery in Cincinnatti, OH

exhibition works

[ohioartleague]

"Trajectory" at Miller Gallery     Make time to come see Ohio Art League artist and Otterbein alumni, Chaz O'Neil present his show, "Trajectory" at Miller Gallery, Otterbein University…

[thetylershields]

[publiccollectors]

Letter in support of the curator Astria Suparak

Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue College of Fine Arts Pittsburgh, PA 15213                                                                                                                                                                January 24, 2014  

                                  To Dan Martin, Dean of the College of Fine Arts, As an alumnus of the College of Fine Arts (BFA 1993) and an artist who has worked with Astria Suparak, I was deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the extraordinarily misguided decision to eliminate the position of Director of the Miller Gallery. Forcing the dismissal of Astria Suparak, precisely at the moment that her profoundly intelligent and critical curatorial work is receiving the greatest attention and acclaim on an international scale, shows enormous ignorance of what a loss this will be to Carnegie Mellon, its students, to the city of Pittsburgh, and to the many that observe Suparak's work with great interest from afar. Why make this change now following the landmark feminist exhibit "Alien She" that has been such a massive success for the gallery? Who is this decision supposed to benefit?

Five years after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, I co-formed the collaborative art group Temporary Services. We have had the good fortune to work with Astria Suparak on two exhibitions at the Miller Gallery: an exhibit devoted to our project and newspaper "Art Work", and the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial. In both instances, Suparak proved herself to be easily one of the most fearlessly intelligent, imaginative, detail-oriented, ethical, and responsible curators we have ever worked with in our fifteen year history. We show images from both of these exhibitions in nearly every lecture we give because of the beautiful and expert installation of these shows that happened under her leadership.

I find it particularly unsettling that there is nothing on CFA's Facebook page or on the page of the Miller Gallery about Suparak's removal. Please know that as people learn of this decision, there will be an outcry, and quite possibly a strong backlash against Carnegie Mellon University, the School of Art, and the College of Fine Arts. Astria Suparak is a well-loved curator whose outstanding body of work is meaningful to thousands beyond Pittsburgh. The cancelation of her job, and her subsequent dismissal will not be taken lightly or forgotten quickly.

I would urge you to avert what is sure to be a very negative reaction to your decision, and reinstate Astria Suparak in her position immediately. Her work is the primary reason I continue to pay attention to Carnegie Mellon as an alumnus, and her departure will leave a terrible void for the students and community that have benefited from her passionate and memorable work at the school.

Marc Fischer (member of Temporary Services; administrator of Public Collectors)

[warriorsinstinctmma]

New Post has been published on Warriors Instinct MMA

New Post has been published on http://warriorsinstinctmma.com/dave-brock-vs-mike-miller-cage-wars-17-main-event-video-footage/

Dave Brock vs Mike Miller Cage Wars 17 Main Event Video Footage

Here it is the Main Event of the evening from Cage Wars 17 Dave Brock vs Mike Miller!

Mike Miller (L) Dave Brock (R)

Miller vs Brock

Miller vs Brock

[mat-fab]

EXHIBITION: Intimate Science - Miller Gallery

INTIMATE SCIENCE

Jan. 21 – March 4, 2012. Available for touring 2012-2013. Guest curated by Andrea Grover

Artists: BCL, Center for PostNatural History, Markus Kayser, Allison Kudla, Machine Project, Philip Ross

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The most recent manifestation of artists working at the intersection of art, science and technology demonstrates a distinctly autodidactic, heuristic approach to understanding the physical and natural world. Intimate Science features artists who are engaged in non-disciplinary inquiry; they aren’t allied to the customs of any single field, and therefore have license to reach beyond conventions. This kind of practice hinges on up-close observation, experiential learning, and inventing new ways for the public to participate in the process. And through their engagement with “intimate science,” a more knowledgeable public might well be able to influence what research is supported and adopted by the larger culture, and the walls of science can become more transparent.

For four months in the fall of 2010, I worked at a cozy desk in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon as a research fellow hosted jointly by the Miller Gallery and the STUDIO. On a daily basis, students, faculty and visiting artists would stop by my front row seat at this frenetic concourse of technoscience dispatches.

While my initial line of inquiry was artists embedded in scientific or industrial environments in the 1960s, I began to uncover a new narrative — a tactile shift in discourse and practice between that moment and this one. While artists two generations ago were dependent on access to technicians, labs, computer time or manufacturers to realize works of scientific or technological complexity, those I was presently meeting had far greater agency to conduct this kind of work themselves. Even ambitious endeavors such as independent biological experiments, materials research and micromanufacturing can be conducted by today’s working artist — and not at a naive or removed distance.

Roger Malina, physicist, astronomer and executive editor of Leonardo, a leading journal for readers interested in the application of contemporary science and technology to the arts, describes this direction as “intimate science.” He writes:

“In an interesting new development in the art world, a generation of artists [is] now collecting data about their world using technological instruments but for cultural purposes. Shared tool-using leads to overlapping epistemologies and ontologies. These artists both make powerful art and help make science intimate, sensual, intuitive.[1]”

And unlike the rare “Leonardo” polymath of the Renaissance, contemporary artists who operate across disciplines employ the expertise of the network: the network, not the individual, is encyclopedic. The Internet has provided unprecedented access to shared knowledge assets, materials, fabrication processes, microfunding, and audiences. This exhibit examines how networked communication and open source culture have contributed to this shift from artists aiding science to doing science, and the impact this imparts on the way scientific knowledge is acquired, utilized and disseminated.

BCL (Tokyo) In Common Flowers/Flower Commons (2009), BCL (Georg Tremmel + Shiho Fukuhara) bio-hacks Suntory’s genetically-modified “Moondust™” cut flowers — carnations bio-engineered to have a blueish purple petal color — back into living plants with the intention of creating an “open source” population of these flowers.

Center for PostNatural History (Pittsburgh) is a project spearheaded in 2008 by Rich Pell with the objective to advance “knowledge relating to the complex interplay between culture, nature, and biotechnology.” It is a singular natural history museum that is concerned with “PostNatural” varieties of life normally excluded from scientific taxonomy, i.e., transgenic organisms that have been altered by humankind via selective breeding, genetic engineering, or other methods of biological tampering.

Markus Kayser (London) takes notions of sustainable micromanufacturing to the extreme through projects like his Solar Sinter (2011), which combines a custom-made 3D printer with solar power to transform sand, on site in the Sahara, into glass forms, and Sun Cutter (2010), a low tech ‘laser cutter’ that makes objects by focusing sunlight into a beam powerful enough to cut through plywood.

Allison Kudla (Seattle) combines computer fabrication technologies and plant tissue culturing to make living installations. In Capacity for (urban eden, human error) (2009) she uses a custom-built computer controlled four-axis positioning table to “print” seeds and algae into a delicate architectural pattern, which she describes as biological material in collaboration with an engineering mechanism.

Machine Project (Los Angeles) is a “not-for-profit arts organization and community event space dedicated to making specialized knowledge and technology accessible to artists and the general public.” Machine describes its terrain as encompassing “art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, and food,” and more. Machine’s style of presenting promotes hands-on engagement and engineers atypical collisions between different branches of knowledge.

Philip Ross (San Francisco) works in the realm of “biotechniques.” He makes sculptural and architectural works from plants and fungi, and videos about micro-organisms. His “mycotecture” series is an experiment using reishi mushrooms as a sustainable construction material. He is also the facilitator of DIY biology events via CRITTER — a salon he founded for the natural sciences.

Andrea Grover was the 2010 Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Miller Gallery and STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

A densely illustrated publication, New Art/Science Affinities (2011), accompanies the exhibition. Co-authored by Grover, Régine Debatty, Claire Evans and Pablo Garcia, and designed by Thumb, the book features more than 60 international artists and collaboratives.

1 R. Malina, “Intimate Science and Hard Humanities,” Leonardo Vol. 42, No. 3, page 184, 2009.

Public Events

Daily 12:30-1:30pm:Capacity for (urban eden, human error) by Allison Kudla prints. @Miller Gallery, 3rd floor, CMU.

Jan. 20, Fri.  12-2pm: Lectures by A. Kudla + P. Ross. Lunch provided, including vegan options.  @ Margaret Morrison Hall #203, 2nd floor, CMU, at Margaret Morrison St. and Tech St. Co-presented by the CMU Schools of Art + Architecture, with support from the University Lecture Series. 5pm: Exhibition Tour with Curator + Artists. Meet on 1st floor. Sponsored by the CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute. 6-8pm: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Reception with refreshments. Sponsored by Wild Purveyors and Full Pint Brewing, with support from the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club.   + New Art/Science Affinities Book Launch with Authors + Artists. Co-presented by the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

Jan. 21, Sat.  12-6pm: Mind Reading for the Left and Right Brain Workshop with Machine Project. Cost: $25, includes galvanic skin response kit participant keeps. Register by emailing [email protected]. Spaces limited. Location: Miller Gallery, 2nd floor.

Learn to read minds (kind of) in this three part workshop. First, Mark Allen of Machine Project will lead participants in a hands on electronics workshop where you will built a primitive lie detector in the form of galvanic skin response meter. Then artist/inituitive duo Krystal Krunch (Asher Hartman and Haruko Tanaka) will lead participants in developing their psychic abilities. Finally, join artist and inventor Sara Roberts for sound-based group participatory activities using looping devices called Earbees.

March 2, Fri.  6pm: Grand Opening of the Center for PostNatural History @ 4913 Penn Ave., Garfield, near Millvale Ave.

Exhibition and events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. When provided, refreshments always include vegetarian and vegan options.

INTIMATE SCIENCE TOUR

April 20 – June 2, 2012 Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA

Nov. 3, 2012 – March 10, 2013 Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

Source: Miller Gallery

[treadingart]

Onwards & Upwards

While I wasn’t able to visit all of the Pittsburgh Biennial exhibitions in town, I did catch the percentage on view at Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Gallery.  I was not overly enthusiastic about the displays inside. I found myself more charmed by “Walking to the Sky”, from CMU alumnus Jonathan Borofsky, installed in the grassy quad outside the gallery.  

    Unfortunately, having little to compare the Miller Gallery show to as discussed above, I must preface my rant with this: Take it as you may, this is just one writers opinion.         I think of biennial exhibitions as an experience approachable for both art fanatics as well as those less involved on a regular basis.  However, for me, the Miller Gallery did not present this opportunity.  The exhibition was located on three floors and comprised of several installations all created by different artist groups, but none seemed more than a forced political presentation as opposed to a pleasant or free-willed experience.  Global Cities, Model Worlds was arranged like a puzzle on stilts and each geometric shape represented a different spatial area that has seen the damaging effects of large-scale events such as a World’s Fairs or Olympics.  It was intriguing to read (I tired half-way through and didn’t finish) but it felt more like a history lesson rather than artistic.  If this biennial was successful in attracting large hordes then I cannot see how it was successful in attracting new patrons or inclining new lovers of art.  

While I fully appreciate the idea of collaboration, it is becoming a bit overused and tarnished; such as other, similarly over-used phenomenon’s as sustainable, green, synergy or perhaps even Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Art collaborations need to be freshened up a bit, made to be interactive based on will rather than social or political guilt; and in the case of this show not the only beam it relied on for support.  Transformazium, a changing installation, was comprised of bricks from a condemned building in one of Pittsburgh’s boroughs and throughout the exhibition various people cleaned the bricks to present the idea of “green demolition”#.  In my opinion, this was the downfall of the Miller Galleries Pittsburgh Biennial: the collaborations were forced and stale; the work stormed me but it aroused no desire to interact.  

How many times can we be probed to “reassess our assumptions and values” before we are expected to actually change?#  This includes you too, the practicing artist who embodies these collaborations and does the creating.  Give me something new!  Challenge my current reality; jolt me with something neither recycled nor presumptuous.

     As I earlier mentioned, “Walking to the Sky” was what really stopped me in my tracks and put a smile on my face.  What an ambitious and positive piece of work.  It is a community piece that encourages you to strike conversation with the partner next to you, or to bring a fellow friend by another time.  This 100-foot-tall pole forging into the sky with 7 human figures joining in a walk to the top and beyond influenced me more than any of the ‘collaborative pieces’ found inside the Miller Gallery.  

Sorry to say but the show just didn’t do it for me.  Will I attend another Miller Gallery exhibition?  Absolutely.  And if I feel un-enthused again I can always join the six figures walking towards the sky for my own adventure. 

________________________________________________________

1. “About the Exhibition.” Miller Gallery. http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/exhibitions/pittsburghbiennial2011/

2. “  “  “  “  “  “  “

CS