The Drunken Boat, an online art journal has posted a summary of our 2011 LACE exhibition in Issue #16. The feature includes highlights of the work shown in the exhibit and selections from the book we published.
Terra Firma @ Monte Vista Projects
Terra Firma is my first solo exhibit, held at Monte Vista Projects in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Curated by Tiffany Sum, the show runs from January 19 – February 10, 2013. Gallery hours are weekends 12-5pm and by appointment.
http://www.montevistaprojects.com/
This is the main text of the Press Release that I wrote for the show:
The work in this exhibition borrows strategies from speculative fiction and design in order to explore themes of escapism, the frontier and the illusion of utopia. In collaboration with graphic designers and 3D computer modelers, Michael has fabricated a series of artifacts that contrast the obviously fictitious with the ambiguously realistic and uncanny in an effort to anticipate the political imaginary of abandoning the Earth.
Through print design, sculpture and installation, the works in Terra Firma explore several ideas including the visual vernacular of how rovers and satellites (themselves, unique sculptures) “see” their environment and therefore, how we experience the unknown through them. In addition to this, Michael is utilizing the strategies of graphic design branding campaigns to envision boarding passes for impossible destinations.
At once an imagining of a potential future and a lamentation for an unsatisfactory present, this work investigates space exploration and space tourism as an adult concretization of a childhood need to be subsumed by fantasy.
Dark Matter
Dark Matter is the overarching title for a series of events that will take place at Machine Project, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Beginning in October and continuing into November, SPECULATIVE will be at it again! This time, however, as an organizational collective and not a singular exhibition. Under the moniker of SPECULATIVE, Chris O’Leary, Zach Blas and Myself have organized a series of events which all respond to the theme “Dark Matter”.
Speaking @ Dorkbot SoCal
Update: Here are some photos from the event.
I’ll be speaking about my work at Dorkbot SoCal next week. Sunday, 12/16 at 1pm.
Dorkbot Socal is held at Machine Project gallery in Echo Park, LA.
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SPECULATIVE Panel Discussion @ LACE Gallery
Join us this Thursday, July 28, at 7pm for a panel discussion about the Speculative exhibit, it’s individual artists, and the larger curatorial goals for the show.
The panel will feature three wonderful guests: Jordan Crandall, Jack Halberstam and Rita Raley. Three artists from the show will also be on the panel including myself, Jeff Cain and Micha Cardenas.
Panel will be moderated by the curators, Zach Blas and Chris O’Leary.
Speaking @ The New Museum, NYC
I will be speaking on a panel at the New Museum on July 15, with 3 other Rhizome Commission winners from the 2010 cycle.
My presentation will focus on Measure Of Discontent, which was generously funded by Rhizome. I’ll be showing documentation of the three pieces involved, and speaking about the inspiration for the piece.
If you’re in the New York area, come on by!
SPECULATIVE @ LACE Gallery
I will be showing a new piece, Water Rites, at the forthcoming exhibit, SPECULATIVE at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions in Hollywood, CA. Read the curatorial statement here!
http://www.welcometolace.org/exhibitions/view/speculative/
The show is curated by Zach Blas and Christopher O’Leary and features work from 10 artists working in a variety of media.
Speculative will focus on new modes of art making and of presentation with an emphasis on the experiential, subversive, and tactical potentials for art in the 21st century. The projects included in this exhibition engage wildly diverse mediums from critical software, art-science, social practices, experimental video, wearable architecture, performance works and much more.
Read On…
Impractically, Practical
I am exhibiting the Sigh Collector and the Foot Tap Amplifier at “Impractically, Practical”, an exhibit in downtown Los Angeles, curated by Matt Manos.
The show runs from 9 June to 14 July, 2011. 860 S. Broadway, Los Angeles CA 90014
Speaking at IxDA
I’ll be giving a talk about my work at a Los Angeles node of the IxDA Conference (Interaction Design Association)
If you live in LA, try to come by!
Gadget OK!
Participating in UCLA symposium Gadget OK! on “Device Art” and gadgets in Japan. I have rebuilt and re-tuned the piece “Machine that Tries to Draw Circles” for an exhibition of alumni work that will accompany the symposium. The exhibition opens on February 19.