05.04.2008: Cranbrook Academy of Art 6th Annual Student Art Auction.
From the press release: "Art lovers and collectors will enjoy this extraordinary opportunity to purchase work by rising young stars in the art world. Works range from large installations to small ceramic teacups, all embodying the leading-edge style and technique of the Academy's top artists." Silent Auction: 3-6pm. Live Auction: 4pm. For more information, consult the Cranbrook Museum Website. Bring money.
04.25.2008: Cranbrook Academy of Art 8th Annual Video Festival.
From the press release: "Video has evolved into a technically beautiful, flexible, accessible and often clandestine medium that provides a powerful tool for communication in the hands of artists. This student-run festival features a night of short videos at the cutting edge of the art world as produced, directed and created by Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate students." 7-9pm, open to the public. For more information, consult the Cranbrook Museum Website. If you're lucky, you might see some of my work.
04.18.2008: Cranbrook Degree Show Opening
and Reception.
On Friday, April 18th, my work will be featured along with the rest of the 2008 Cranbrook graduating class as part of the 2008 degee show. The opening goes from 6-8pm at the museum and the show will be up from April 19th through May 9th. For more information, consult the Cranbrook Museum Website.
04.05.2008: MONA Closing.
Side By Side, the 2008 Cranbrook Photo Show at the Museum of New Art will be having a closing reception on the 5th of April from 6pm to 9pm. For more information, consult the MONA Website.
03.08.2008: MONA Opening.
From the press release:
"The Museum of New Art, Detroit/Pontiac will feature student work by Cranbrook Academy of Art Masters of Fine Art (MFA) candidates in the exhibition “Side by Side: New Works from the Cranbrook PhotographyStudios."The exhibition will include works from fourteen artists whose research and current studio practice is based out of the Cranbrook photography program headed by Artist-in-Residence, David Hilliard. Worksinclude prints-on-paper, video, and installations that examine the boundless possibilities of contemporary photographic practice.
"Side by Side: New Works from the Cranbrook Photography Studios," will be on exhibit from Saturday, March 8 through Saturday, April 11,2008. The artists and Museum of New Art will host an opening receptionfrom 6pm until 9pm Saturday, March 8, 2008. Regular gallery hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12 noon until 6pm. Artists will host daily gallery hours. A closing reception will be held on Saturday, April 5, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm. The Museum of New Art is located at 7 North Saginaw Street in Pontiac, Michigan." For more information, consult the MONA Website.
“Who am I? I don’t know.” –Derek Zoolander
“Can we actually ‘know’ the universe? My God, it's hard enough finding your way around in Chinatown.” – Woody Allen
The artist is dead; long live the artist. When I make artwork, it always exists as both an exploration of an idea as well as an experiment to create further understanding. Does this make me a conceptual artist? Or am I simply being a critical participant in the world that surrounds me as I doubt, think, and be engaged? For as long as I have been aware of myself, I have been a practitioner of philosophy as my response to life and I seek whatever answers I can find through my work.
By combining video technology with my environment, my work explores the relationships inherent in my experience and questions the assumptions we make about the nature of time, religion, and technology. For me, video is a way of exploring our relationship to reality that provides a whole host of tools that can be used to alter the way we reflect on our experiences. A single tree can be expanded into a forest or the forest compressed into a single leaf.
My most recent work addresses this through the creation of synthetic realities that question our expectations of technological representation. Does technology create a pale representation of reality? A more desirable one? A more real one? Each piece uses a photographic vocabulary that seeks to precisely represent nature as precisely and as accurately as possible, while the display mechanisms address a completely technological experience. The intricate, poetic images seduce and compel the viewer to have an experience while the representation of time fluctuates subtly. These alterations enhance the formal appeal of the image and simultaneously create an enhanced natural experience outside our assumed empirical reality.
My education and experiences have prepared me for the practice of philosophy through my work, so my studio practice serves as a laboratory where I can research and explore. The final work exists as a representation of my process and a proof of my arguments. For the viewer, it exists as an experience in which the viewer may participate in my inquiry and draw their own conclusions to the questions my work asks. The artwork’s central goal is not to make the reader a passive consumer of visual truth, but rather a critical producer of ideas. Through my questions, the viewers create their own answers. Art is a way of knowing and I want to know everything.
Education.
2008 Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.F.A Candidate, Photography
2004 Creighton University, B.F.A, Photography/Graphic Design
Exhibitions.
2008 Graduate Degree Exhibition, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2008 8th Annual Cranbrook Video Festival, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2008 “Side By Side,” Museum of New Art Detroit, Pontiac, MI
2008 “Under New Management,” Bolton Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2008 “A Forest,” Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2007 “Simultanious Realities,” Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2007 7th Annual Cranbrook Video Festival, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2007 “L’Exquisite Cadavre,” Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2007 “Picture This: New Ideas On Photography,”
Museum of New Art Detroit, Pontiac, MI
2006 "Rollerskate or Die Festival", Cranbrook Academy of Art
2006 “Loupe: Current Work By Cranbrook Photography Students,”
Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art
2005 “Studio 305”, MJ Java, Omaha, NE
2004 “The Process”, Leid Center Gallery, Creighton University
Professional Experience.
2008 Teacher, Digital Photography and Video Production Classes, Cranbrook Summmer Art Institute,
Bloomfield Hills, MI
2007 Teaching Assistant, Cranbrook Summer Art Institute,
Bloomfield Hills, MI
2007 Coordinator & Co-Curator, 7th Annual Cranbrook Video Festibal, Cranbrook Academy of Art,
Bloomfield Hills, MI
2006-2008 Teaching Assistant, Central Media Lab,
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2005-2007 Lead Design Consultant, Cult Status, St. Paul, MN
Selected Clients.
Cult Status
Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum
Elmwood Townhall Records
Northstar Opera Company
All Inquiries Addressed Via Email:
My Work Elsewhere:
Flickr.
My Flickr account is my virtual scrapbook. It's minimally edited and contains all the various sets of images I work from as well as a number of images documenting various parts of my life. 1087 images strong, and growing.
Virb.
Part of my infrequently updated social networking empire. Good for looking up trivial information about me such as which records I like and which films I enjoy. I guess you could friend me or something. Only if you want to.
MySpace.
The other part of my infrequently updated social networking empire. That's it. There aren't any more. And now that I have this site to work on, I probably won't be visiting any of my social networking sites anymore. Sorry.
People/Places/Things I Like:
Mark Sengbusch.
A friend and classmate from Cranbrook. Most recently, I've been working on documenting his painting work.
Carl B. Oxley III.
Another mover and shaker on the Detroit paint scene.
Mike Sgier.
Mike and I also go way back. Excellent illustration and comics skills and a class act all around.
Eric Bintner.
Another friend and classmate from Cranbrook.
Liz Cohen.
The new Cranbrook Photo artist-in-residence.
Cult Status.
Alex and I go way back. I designed his logo, he printed my business cards. So if you've got one of my business cards, you've got some of his product.
Dear Astronaut.
They rule. That's all you need to know. Now visit their website and spend lots of money.
Jason Fulford.
He visited Photo.
Andrew Maydoney.
A friend and classmate from Cranbrook.
Dana Schutz.
(Caution, contains penis.) She visited the Painting department.
Jason Salavon.
He also visited Photo.
You're still here? It's over. Go home.
