September 16 - October 24, 2024
From the Wright Gallery:
“Wright Gallery at Texas A&M University presents “Dissonant Data,” a solo-exhibition by Austin, Texas-based Shawn Smith, on view from September 16th through October 24th, 2024. The artist merges nature and technology in his two and three-dimensional work featuring life-size animals, insects, and abstract self-portraits. Through this exhibition, the artist explores “how humans use data as a lens for looking at the anthropocene, species loss, and habitat destruction.” On September 26th, the artist will talk about his work at 4:00 pm, with a reception to immediately follow until 6:00 pm. Open to the public.
The exhibition “Dissonant Data” brings to light that contemporary relationships with the natural world are often mediated through digital technology. Smith’s sculptures of animals are abstracted into pixelated forms, fabricated from rectangular dowels of cut and dyed wood. For these works, the artist sources imagery from the internet and uses both digital and analog techniques to “build [his] objects pixel by pixel in an overtly laborious process in direct contrast to the speed of the digital world.” The artist is, “interested in how each pixel plays an important role in the identity of the object, the same way each cell plays a crucial role in the identity of an organism.” Like digital imagery, both Smith’s wooden sculptures and mixed media works on paper are composed of thousands of tiny shapes. Smith utilizes diverse materials and tools in his work such as 3D printing, cast resin, and laser-cut fabric printed with pigments made from cochineal beetles.
Located in the Langford Architecture Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, Wright Gallery is open weekdays 8 am – 5 pm. Free and open to the public. To learn more about the Wright Gallery, please visit www.arch.tamu.edu/inside/services/wright-gallery/.”
Reception: September 26, 2024 | 4–6 pm
Wright Gallery, TAMU College Station
College of Architecture, Texas A&M University, 3137 TAMU, Langford Architecture Building A
College Station, 77843 Texas
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