Array: exurb

Art League Houston is excited to present Array, an exhibition by Houston-based interdisciplinary collective {exurb} in ALH’s Main Gallery. Exhibition Dates: May 6 – June 18, 2016. Opening Reception: 6 – 9 PM Friday May 6, 2016. ALH Main Gallery I Artist talk at 7:00 PM.

The exhibition features an interactive audio video installation made up of LCD video monitors hung from the gallery ceiling facing downward. The sound and video in the exhibition evolve based on input from the viewers in the space. Below the monitors is a viewing area with movable seating where viewers are invited to sit down, lay back and experience the installation.

“Throughout human history, we have looked up in order to observe, catalog, map coordinates, install communication networks, and mine information” says the collective. “We are interested in this act of looking up, of observation for the sake of discovering and mapping patterns, how it is that we have recognized asterisms in order to identify localities, navigate, and mark the passage of time, how data networks traverse land and sea while satellites and drones bounce information around the planet, how different networks – data, social, communication, neural, intelligence gathering – fold into one another. We are curious about what our minds construct, between what’s actual and imagined, in the gaps and ruptures, the fragments of objective truth kneaded into projections of ourselves.”

“We are also inspired by that meditative moment of casual imagination, the bucolic daydream, those moments of mental and physical leisure when we loosen the grip on our conscious thoughts and allow our eyes to build and re-build the clouds and stars and vast spaces we usually ignore.”

ABOUT {exurb}

{exurb} is an interdisciplinary collective interested in the confluence of art and technology, the rapidly increasing space that technology occupies in our everyday experience, and its effect on our relationships and understanding of one another. The group’s practice implements programming, electronics, construction, mechanics, video, sound, and other media. Through these techniques, {exurb} strives to make works that are immersive, site-specific, and interactive. The co-founders of the collective include an electrical engineer, a writer and musician, a sculptor and a digital media artist. http://exurb.org/

Johnny DiBlasi is a Texas gulf coast native who has exhibited nationally. He earned his MFA in Photographic and Electronic Media from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. Prior to that, DiBlasi received his BFA from the University of Houston in Photography and Digital Imaging. DiBlasi works with hybrid art-making processes that include video, programming, installation and other (digital) media. He currently lives and works between Indianapolis and Houston and teaches Digital Media & Art at the University of Indianapolis.

Stephen Kraig received his degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He previously worked as a hardware design engineer designing vibration sensors for industrial equipment. Stephen recently founded Kraig Amplification, a manufacturer of custom hand-wired tube amplifiers for electric guitar and bass, which he now manages full time.

Patrick Renner is a native Houstonian. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. At the start of 2016, Renner founded Flying Carpet, a company whose mission is the design and creation of public art. He has exhibited in Texas, New York, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Rhode Island, California and once outside the US in Cuba.

Eric Todd is a West Tennessee transplant who received a BFA in Creative Writing and Theater from the University of Houston. A writer and musician, he has been an editor at NANO Fiction Magazine as well as a regular contributor the Houston Rockets ESPN affiliate Red94.