Pratt Manhattan Gallery will present “Kinesthetics: Art Imitating Life,” a group exhibition featuring sculptures that move with elegant and articulated gestures (through 4/27, event details below). The exhibition, which explores the aesthetics of movement and includes kinetic sculptures that echo the movement of natural form and human experiences, is free and open to the public. The hybrid sculptural works on display–which combine elements from the natural world with mechanical parts such as wires, motors, strings, pulleys, hydraulics, and high tensile fabric–are powered by hand, plug-in electricity, and solar cells.
“Each artist's sculpture reveals a kind of persona that evolves over time. We as viewers start to assign life-like attributes to the works and they begin to transcend their artificiality,” said Linda Lauro-Lazin, co-curator and adjunct associate professor, Department of Digital Arts, Pratt Institute.
The work on display in “Kinesthetics” includes morphing sculptures, moving wall reliefs, animated robotic works, and drawings and video from a group of established and emerging artists. Participating artists include Alan Rath and Chico MacMurtrie along with U-Ram Choe, Casey Curran, Reuben Margolin, Meridith Pingree, Adriana Salazar, Bjorn Schulke, Chei Wei Wang, and Zimoun. Some works examine movement in nature by re-animating specimens of plant and animal forms and by tapping into our culture's anxiety and fascination with technology. Others mimic human creative endeavors such as mark making and sound making, and replicate everyday tasks such as tying shoe laces.
“Kinesthetics” is curated by Linda Lauro-Lazin and Nick Battis, director of exhibitions, Pratt Institute.
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“Kinesthetics: Art Imitating Life”
February 8-April 27, 2013
Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 West 14th Street, Second Floor
Gallery Hours: Monday–Saturday, 11 AM-6 PM; Thursdays, 11 AM-8 PM
Images from Left to Right: Reuben Margolin's The Round Wave, Bjorn Schulke's Spider Drone #2, and Alan Rath's Lala ZaZa. Image Credits from Left to Right: Courtesy Reuben Margolin; Photo by John Berens, Courtesy Bitforms Gallery, New York; and Courtesy Alan Rath and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Aronoff at 718-636-3554 or aarono29@pratt.edu