The nth Degree

April 28 - June 9, 2017

OPENING RECEPTION:

Friday, April 28, 5:30 - 8:00pm | FREE

AWARDS

[1] "Going Solo " Exhibition or $500

[2] $200 Juror's Choice Awards

ARTISTS

Clare Allin

Katie Arthurs

Matthew Boonstra

Pierre Bourgeade

Susan Campbell

Sarah Casey

Miguel de Aguero

Ron Geibel

Cathleen Gordon

Gerald Hushlak

Linda Jackson

Yvette Kaiser Smith

Abbey Key

Ruth Kolker

Roger McCarthy

Laura Morris

Pat Owoc

Coral Pereda Serras

Laura Saunders Kaiser

Shannon Soldner

Meagan Snavely

Cyane Tornatzky

Julian Van Der Moere

Emily Victory

Kate Vinson

Chao Wang

Jake Weigel

Susan West

Peggy Wyman

Anne Yoncha

Qin Zhang

THE EXHIBITION

Numbers are used to quantify, rank, prioritize, calculate, and measure. Depending on their context, numbers can be holy, encouraging, devastating, superficial, or so commonplace they are barely noticed. Many works that feature repetition or are part of a series inherently reference numbers. The Nth Degree is a juried exhibition of work that uses numbers or mathematics. These influences can be conveyed boldly, subtly, contextually, literally, or simply as inspiration.

juror

James Chase is the Program Coordinator for Fine Arts, Humanities & Languages at Manchester Community College, an Adjunct Instructor of Fine Arts at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, as well as a board member for Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. Chase is a national and international exhibiting artist, merging painting, printmaking and photography with social engagement practices. Since 2009, he has been featured in over 40 art exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include Picked Six Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio 2015 and Memory Palace 2016 at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. Recent solo exhibitions include Echoes at the RMFA and Kill The Lights at South Plains College in Levelland, TX.

juror's statement

As an artist, curator, and mentor who works closely with artists of all ages, I am honored to be the juror for “The Nth Degree” at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, MO. This was a responsibility that I did not take lightly. The process involved a review of over 98 artworks representing all media types: painting, drawing, sculpture, video, photography, printmaking, and ceramics. I ultimately selected 52 works by 31 artists for exhibition. 

I selected the works without the aid of artists’ statements, artists’ names, or knowledge of their other works or reputations. I juried the show from digital files, which was frustrating at times, because that is not always the truest representation of a piece. I couldn’t see the texture or marks that so often bring life art. I was grateful to the team at the Foundry Art Centre for allowing me nearly two weeks to carefully study the digital submissions. It was my tendency to respond to the level of mastery and the traditional foundations of art-making (color, form, composition, line and shape).

I wanted to include as many artists as possible, while displaying a wide variety of interpretations on the theme. From the pool of entries, I selected the pieces that inspired me the most. They were the ones that showed the broadest range of possibilities of what “numbers” can be. As the call for submissions stated, numbers can be holy, encouraging, devastating, superficial, or so commonplace they are barely noticed.

I was fascinated to see artists using rulers, straight edges, and other physical tools to create their work, while others distorted, projected, and mathematically altered their images to produce their art. I looked for the use of concepts such as pattern, transformations of data, and symmetry.

Thank you to all the artists featured. In the end, “The Nth Degree” is an impressive array of work by artists that embraced the concept of numbers in thought provoking ways.