metaphysicsCURATED BY ROBERT C. MORGANMETAPHYSICS AND THE VIRTUAL
JOSEPH NECHVATAL AND HUSTON RIPLEY
The Roger Smith Lab Gallery
DECEMBER 14-23, 2006

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15TH, 630-9PM

This exhibition will focus on the works of two artists whose endeavors in the realm of an aesthetic/conceptual practice represents an overlay between the rehabilitation of metaphysics and the virtuality of the information age.

Joseph Nechvatal is one of the leading computer artists working in the realm of virtual telematics today. Beginning in the early eighties, Nechvatal used the alloverness – so prescient at the time in formalist painting – as an inversion of itself in order to evoke the need for an expanded content through virtual thinking and photo-mechanical processes.

Conversely, Huston Ripley’s densely-compacted drawings on 16-ply sheets of folded Japan paper remark on the potential for re-asserting value in the representation of the human body – less in political terms, than in the realm of the metaphysical.

Nechvatal and Ripley would appear to represent two sides of the same phenomenon, antipodes that are revealing themselves within the informational speed and excess of today.

The Roger Smith Lab Gallery is a project based exhibition space located in one of the liveliest business sections of New York City. Sponsored by The Roger Smith Hotel, The Lab is a high traffic, fast paced, converted "storefront" that features conceptual work and provides a venue for experimental national and international artists and curators and their ideas. The Lab Gallery specializes in ten-day exhibitions. For more information, call 212-339-2092, or email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com.

Matthew Semler, Artistic Director.
D. Dominick Lombardi, Curatorial Advisor.

THE GALLERY IS LOCATED ON THE CORNER OF 47TH STREET AND LEXINGTON AVENUE
GALLERY HOURS ARE: 12PM-7PM TUESDAY-FRIDAY (or by appointment)