Overt & Covert: technology and portraiture
DataSpaceTime, James Fotopoulos, M. Henry Jones, Anton Perich
May 31 – June 24, 2013
Opening reception Friday May 31, 6-9pm

James Fotopoulos, “Sublimation #6″, 2013, ink-jet archival print, 18 x 24” – © courtesy of the artist

Microscope Gallery is extremely pleased to present Overt & Covert: technology and portraiture a group show of new and recent works by DataSpaceTime (Ray Sweeten & Lisa Gwilliam), James Fotopoulos, M. Henry Jones, and Anton Perich, utilizing unique analog or digital processes – both obvious and hidden – to interpret and expand upon the notion of the portrait. Together the radically different works in Overt & Covert offer breakthroughs in 3-D imagery, electronic painting, and the use of embedded virtual information, among others, and contribute new perspectives, dimensions and textures to the dialogue on portraiture.

M. Henry Jones’ lifelike portrait of the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, employs “Fly’s Eye” 3-D, a technique of integral photography the artist has spent years trying to perfect and is debuting in this show. The result is a three dimensional, sculptural image, created from 2,600 original photographs, and viewable through a custom designed lens array without the need for special glasses or other devices.

DataSpaceTime’s “François-Marius Granet “ is a high tech reinterpretation of the 1807 painting by Ingres. Printed on canvas, with the image comprised of thousands of colored QR codes – the modern incarnation of the bar code – the work takes the viewer into the realm of virtual information. The QR codes are fully functional and when read through hand-held devices using the artist’s custom app link to YouTube videos relating to the subject of the portrait and stolen artwork, in referencing their use of appropriated material.

Haunting, fluorescent, water-color-like digital prints by James Fotopoulos, use as their source images created by the purposeful misuse of in-camera title settings for still scenes in the artist’s 7-hour epic VHS tetralogy “Jerusalem”.

And, Anton Perich’s new “machine” painting of his frequent subject, Andrea – made with an electronic apparatus built by the artist in 1978 and now considered a precursor to the ink jet printer – combines elements of both painting and photography in an image that also has colorful undertones of analog TV. In this work, the artist, the machine, which is able to read and interpret the lights and darks of a photographic image, and nature, in the form of gravity causing the heavy paint to run – each have a hand.

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DATASPACETIME is a collaboration between Brooklyn-based artists Ray Sweeten and Lisa Gwilliam. Their work to date has revolved around the QR Code and the data it contains, taking their current obsession with obtaining information on demand through iPads, Wi-Fi, and smartphones to the next level, turning everyday objects into interactive data retrieval centers. The duo debuted in a solo show “the optimal value for y” at Microscope Gallery in November 2011.

JAMES FOTOPOULOS is an artist and filmmaker from Chicago now living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His works have exhibited at: the Whitney Biennial, Momenta Art; Museo de Arte Contemportaneo del Zulia, Venezuela; Parsons Hall Project Space, Holyoke, MA; Triskel Art Center, Cork, Ireland; Vertex List NYC; Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) among others. His drawings were featured in the exhibition “Dreamful Slumbers” at Microscope Gallery in January 2012.

M. HENRY JONES has been a seminal figure in the downtown Manhattan art scene throughout the last three decades. He is noted for his work with photography, animation, and film including the grounding breaking 1979 animated music video “Soul City”.

ANTON PERICH is a Croatian-born, New York-based artist. His photographs, paintings and videos have been shown and published worldwide and are in the collections of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Warhol Foundation, and Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in NY. Perich’s machine paintings were featured in a solo exhibit at Microscope “Current Electric” in May of 2011.

Special Gallery Hours: June 1 & June 2, Noon-7pm for Bushwick Open Studios
Additional Reception SAT June 1 2-5pm, for Bushwick Open Studios

M. Henry Jones, “Jim Jarmusch Fly’s Eye”, 2013, Fly’s Eye photograph, 1/2-inch brushed aluminum frame w/ illuminating light panel and polyeurathane optical grade lens screen, 20 x 26″ © 2013 M. Henry Jones