Education + Exhibitions

Education:
MFA, '99 to 2001, Art and Technology Department, School of the Art Institute
of Chicago, Chicago IL
BFA, '98 to '99, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
BFA, '94 to '98, Painting, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL

 
For the most current listing of selected exhibitions and media please refer to the following pdf document: resume.pdf

Artist Statement

I enter a space. I look at the artwork around me, on the walls, on the floor. I try to concentrate on one particular piece. My shadow falls next to it. My clothes are reflected on its surface. Someone across the room coughs loudly. Another person moves in front of me, obstructing my view for a few seconds, then moves away. The cars outside squeak their breaks as they stop at an intersection. People, walking in and out, carry on their usual conversations in low voices. -- This is the scenario in which I most often view art. When I think about my own artworks this is the context in which I most often place them.

On the one hand, the elements described above can be considered, if not arbitrary, then at least secondary to the meaning of a work of art. On the other, accepting them and allowing them to be partners in the creation of meaning, gives one an opportunity to perceive an artwork not as an object or a set of objects but as a system of interrelated experiences placed inside an exhibition space.

My work deals with engaging such systems in various different ways: altering them, mirroring their content, sabotaging or invading them, combining and recombining experiences within them. To this end I use a great deal of technological elements. Most often I give my artworks an ability to sense the viewers' space (sound levels, light levels, temperature, their movement) and offer an immediate comment on it (change color, speed of movement, position, emit or stop emitting a particular sound.) The works that are not overtly interactive exhibit other behaviors that alter the viewers' environment such as ambient sound production or construction that calls attention to the surrounding space.

Creation of artwork allows me to explore scenarios and systems of viewing art and to try to understand some of the complex interrelationship within them. The most exciting part of this process happens when the audience members engage my work. This always alters my original ideas, since viewers' actions have an ability to change behavior of my pieces and visa versa. Observing them, I am both surprised and challenged. I become both creator and viewer. From this position I am able to formulate further questions that drive my consecutive work; my art production becomes an experiment that can never be finished.