C4W: 2016 Exhibit Finale Featuring ARIADNE
C4W: 2016 Exhibit Finale featuring ARIADNE – closing reception of Gamut Gallery’s annual “C4W: Call 4 Works” exhibition curated by Lindsay Nohl, featuring a cross-venue premiere of Sean Connaughty’s short film “Is This Your’s?”; and a live performance from touring A/V duo ARIADNE, with an opening set from Michael Masaru Flora.
For the closing reception of C4W: 2016, the gallery welcomes a special performance from ARIADNE, on tour as part of their ongoing “Observance” multimedia performance series, which was premiered at the 2016 CURRENTS New Media Festival in Santa Fe, NM in June. An A/V experimental sacred music duo from Brooklyn, New York, ARIADNE is comprised of Christine Lanx and Benjamin Forest. Incorporating modern chant-like vocalises, Anglican choral textures, and percussive soundscapes in dense multi-sensory layers, the duo flawlessly bridge the two worlds of ritualism of ancient spirituality and the secular iconography of the post-modern. Through their intricate musical compositions, striking digital visuals, ARIADNE create a captivating live performance.
Observance is an audio/visual performance that draws from themes of ecstatic visions, the eternal feminine and dream symbolism depicted in a digital landscape of infinite environments and harsh textures. The performance system developed by ARIADNE for Observance explores the improvisatory interplay of music and visuals mediated by machine learning, physics simulation and motion analysis techniques.
The evening will also feature the premiere of “Is This Yours?,” a short video piece from local artist Sean Connaughty that will be simultaneously released that night at 15 different venues in Minneapolis. Connaughty has been been working on a large environmental art project that is cleaning up Lake Hiawatha. The larger story is that he’s discovered that massive amounts of trash go down the storm sewers all over the city and end up in our lakes and the river. With installations at the Weisman and Form + Content gallery recently in conjunction with this project and several local and national press write-ups, this artful video is the perfect storytelling companion piece.
Finally, this event will be the last chance to view “C4W: 2016” at Gamut Gallery. The exhibition features work from twenty-four artists out of a diverse pool of submissions. Hailing from a background of illustration and design, choosing work that communicated well was a top priority for guest curator Lindsay Nohl. The artists selected for the show represent confident creators whose artistic voices were strong, vibrant and intentional in the way they handled their media and craftsmanship. The exhibit highlights the concepts of readability and response, examining the mindset that you cannot separate the choices an artist makes in their approach to a piece from the final product. It’s all part of the work.
ARIADNE is an A/V experimental sacred music duo from Brooklyn, New York comprised of Christine Lanx and Benjamin Forest. With a focus on interspersing the ritualism of ancient spirituality and the secular iconography of the post-modern, ARIADNE flawlessly bridge the two worlds through their intricate musical compositions, striking digital visuals, and captivating live performances. Past/future performances: MIT List Visual Arts Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Made in NY Media Center by IFP, Elastic Arts (Chicago), Harvestworks (NY), University of Idaho, University of Denver, Reverse Gallery (NY), Trans-Pecos (NY), Bunker Projects (PA), DFBRL8R Performance Art Gallery (Chicago), and Gallery 788 (Baltimore).
MICHAEL MASARU FLORA is a Minneapolis based sound artist. His interest is in the exploration of sound via research and artistic practice. Through performance, installation, and recording he creates pieces that examine sonic morphology, spatialization, and human perception.
SEAN CONNAUGHTY is a multi-media artist who lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He currently is a professor of art at The University of Minnesota, where he has taught painting and drawing since 2000. Recently Mr. Connaughty has shown his work in Germany, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York City and Minneapolis. Recently he served as a jury member for the Omani Fine Art Society, in Muscat, Oman by invitation of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. He has also served as a juror for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “Assafeer Art Competition” an exhibition of Saudi Artists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sean Connaughty received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and his Masters of Fine Arts Degree from The Savannah College of Art and Design.
LINDSAY NOHL is the founder of Light Grey Art Lab, a Minneapolis gallery and collaborative arts space that brings together creatives from around the world to exhibit work, share process, collaborate and learn. Light Grey Art Lab has been featured on the websites of CNN, Kotaku, DesignWorkLife, Forbes and Nintendo Magazine. She has been a speaker on collaboration at GOOD Magazine; a panelist on Creative Business at ICON 9 and the Illustration Conference; a judge at for Adobe’s Creative Jam; and a lecturer at the Science Museum of Minnesota for her work at Light Grey Art Lab.