ILANA ZWESCHI | BEAUTY + VIOLENCE | ADVANCE PREVIEW
August 1 - 24, 2024
Opening First Thursday, August 1, 6 - 8 pm
Artist in attendance
Artist Talk, Saturday August 17, 2 pm
My paintings involve math and philosophical reflection. Through hand-written algorithms, I can transform any text document into colorful oil paintings. I target destructive texts, words that are connected to harm in our current society. The raw data of the text acts as input for the algorithm, which is then run through a series of “if/then” rules I assign based on the structure and grammar of the written words to receive an output of painterly actions.
While the visual outcome of each painting is abstract, all works start with representational drawings beneath to give the algorithm something organic to react to. One small moment in the drawing can cause a ripple effect of painted marks echoing off and overlapping each other.
The show title Beauty + Violence has both visual and conceptual origins. Visually, many of the forms appear to be exploding with light and color or are walking the line between referencing a bouquet of flowers and a mushroom cloud. Conceptually, I am disarming the harm in the text by obscuring and recontextualizing it. My goal is to transform something harmful into something beautiful and point to the complicated relationship between love and power. - Ilana Zweschi
For a listing of more available work and biographical information, please visit Ilana Zweschi's primary page on our website.
