We had a great crowd yesterday at the opening reception for “What Lies Within“, the staff art exhibition, featuring artists Richard Vabulas, Lynda Davis Jeha, Beth O’Neil, Mary Holliday, Cynthia Voorhees, Rebecca Darling, and Joy Playter.

Today we hosted the opening reception for “Eye of the Storm”, an exhibition featuring an installation by students in Professor David Olsen’s ARTS317 Collaborations course. Come by and check it out!

We had a number of events last week to celebrate the opening of the exhibition “Primordial” featuring artists Constance Jacobson and David Hart. On Monday night, David Hart gave a lecture and gallery talk about his work to the Digital Imaging course taught by Professor David Olsen. Students were able to get in depth information about how Hart uses mathematical equations and a natural selection process using software he has written himself to generate and “grow” images.

On Tuesday afternoon the opening reception ran from 4:45-6pm. It was great to see everyone come out for the opening to see the works in person!

“Arts: The Week Ahead”
Boston Globe
October 27, 2011
Cate McQuaid
CONSTANCE JACOBSON AND DAVID HART: PRIMORDIAL Two artists explore evolution and genetics. Hart uses a mathematical equivalent to natural selection to generate his digital prints. Jacobson, a printmaker, creates fabricated scientific imagery from an imagined parallel universe. Through Nov. 27. Jewett Art Gallery, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley. 781-283-2056,www.jewettgallery.wordpress.com

left to right: Constance Jacobson, Clara Lieu, David Hart

Photo credit: Amy Nachbar

“Primordial” is featured in this article from Wellesley Patch by Amy Nachbar!  Read the article and view a slideshow here.

Tuesday’s opening reception of “The Primordial Show” at the Jewett Art Gallery at Wellesley College featured the works of Artists Constance Jacobson and David Hart.

Hart explained, “The Primordial Show” is about putting together art from two very different media, but that share a common goal, to create and experiment with new life forms. Constance’s work is more physical and analog, and mine more digital and less tangible. The process that I am using to create my images is based on mimicking natural selection in software and then actively choosing what lives to mate and what dies, literally growing new imagery and infusing my own aesthetic along the way through choices I make.”

As a young boy Hart loved the mixture of art and technology, his favorite album at the age of seven was “Switched on Bach” and started making pictures with a computer at the age of ten.

Constance Jacobson has said that her printmaking is just an extension of her drawings. She is fluid and articulate in her printmaking. It is the primary visual language which she translates a fascination with biology and the connectedness of all life forms into poetic images.

For many years Jacobson worked as a Graphic Designer as a means to support herself. She started working digitally only a few years ago although she has been working with computers since the 80′s and decided it was time to incorporate the computer into her art.

Jacobson completed her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) which she started twenty three years earlier at Cranbrook. The work that she was exposed to there had to do with scientific and microscopic imagery. Although she makes good use of science as inspiration, it is in fact the materials and methodology she chooses that inspire and guide her.

She is currently working as a Professor of Printmaking at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Jacobson’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the New York Public Library, the DeCordova Museum and the Fogg Art Museum.

Hart studied computer graphics and mathematics at the University of Utah and Cornell University. He has worked in the fields of digital art, medical imaging, video games and computer generated films. Much of his work is done with the software that he has created himself. He currently lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Primordial Show will run through Nov. 27 with gallery hours daily from noon 5 p.m.

About this column: “Viewfinder” is a weekly image gallery featuring the faces and places of the town of Wellesley.

“To Do List”
Boston Globe
OCTOBER 25, 2011
Born to be art In “Primordial,’’ Constance Jacobson and David Hart have art-making down to a science. Jacobson’s prints explore biology, biodiversity, and ecology. Computer scientist Hart uses mathematical equations to create artistic images. Noon-5 p.m. Reception 4:45-6 p.m. Through Nov. 27. Jewett Gallery, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley. 781-283-2042,www.jewettgallery.wordpress.com

Over the past few weeks we’ve had several events in the gallery; first an opening reception for “The Standing Reserve”, followed by a gallery talk by the four artists in the exhibition: Jen Barrows, Myles Dunigan, Jim Mclean, and Andrew Orloski. All four artists are staff members who work with the art department, it was wonderful to get an opportunity to see their own independent work int the context of the gallery.

(above) Myles Dunigan speaks about his intaglio prints.

(above) Jim Mclean talks about his prints.

(above) Jen Barrows talks about her photographs.

(above) Andrew Orloski discusses his installation piece and video works.

We had the opportunity to hear new faculty artists David Kelley, Andrea Evans, and Heddi Siebel speak about their work in the AKATBA exhibition today! The exhibition is up through this weekend, and on Monday we will install “The Standing Reserve”, featuring studio art staff.

We had a great opening to the gallery season with the opening reception of AKATBA last week!  Great to see familiar faces and new ones at the reception.