April 7 – May 22, 2010

Opening reception: April 7, 6-8 pm

Apex Art

291 Church Street
New York, NY 10013 USA
tel. +212 431 5270
fax. +646 827 2487
info@apexart.org
hours: tue – sat 11 – 6 pm
free admission to all programs and events

Big thank you to everyone at Bad at Sports for asking me to send some work for the show at Apex Art. Below are some images of the piece i sent. It’s titled D.U. Beta, which stands for (Display Unit Beta)… it’s officially out of the prototype stage but it’s still got a few kinks hence the Beta status. For further instructions on the operation of D.U. Beta please click here

so i just put up a flickr set of my newest piece… tentatively titled DuBeta… as in Display Unit Beta. i know i want to title these pieces and perhaps all this new work in the style of El Lissitzky specifically his “Proun” titling, but that’s as far as i’ve got. i’ve been calling this piece “Display Unit” for a while now and that refers to the end game where this piece becomes a living surface with screens and what not… but for now the pieces are totally meat world, not moving parts, no embedded smart tech just a bit of laser cut chipboard, paint and tape. And i totally get the pseudo modernist thing and love it. anyhow so i’m thinking of calling this piece Dubeta. a conflation of Display Unit and Beta. in many ways this is the Beta, it’s not a prototype specifically but there are a few kinks still to be worked out…. Dubeta also sounds a bit like Do Better, which is also a subliminal nod i guess to Beckett and his notion of the importance of failure.  so…. hmm. anyhow i’ll be shipping this piece to NYC today for the Bad at Sports show at Apex Art, “Don’t Piss on Me and Tell me it’s raining!’” …. image below shows DU prototype (Duproto) hanging out with Dubeta, you can see more of their antics in the flickr set.

David Constable

Flickr set with details / different pov’s

Fountain

Tom Burtonwood
David Constable

March 13th – April 4th, 2010

Opening reception, Sat. March 13th, 7-10pm

Chawn-oiserie chor-nwä-z(a)ré, (Fr) n art made from detritus, – n to construct with purpose, – v bored with it all [N Eng & Scot from chawn to talk, and Fr, from chinoiserie (a decorative or fine art object in) a style or design or decoration that uses or copies Chinese motifs or methods]

For Chawn-oiserie Burtonwood presents two projects. The first is a series of modest size sculptures each paired with a drawing. These combines explore the interplay between two-dimensional space and three-dimensional form. Geometric shapes inspired by the video game Tetris spill out of the drawings and cascade into the gallery. Burtonwood uses a laser cutter to exact these blocks from plywood and acrylic. The same outlines are found in the drawings and so a connection between the two is quite evident. His second project for this exhibition is a digital animation titled “Translations.” Produced in collaboration with Chicago based sound artist Jacob C. Hammes, the animation and audio work begins with a flattened two dimensional pattern that transforms into a simple cube. Burtonwood is fascinated with the “fold” and the act of folding / unfolding. The animation follows several different permutations of the cube unfolding / folding in this manner. Tom Burtonwood received his BA in Fine Art from Loughborough University, Loughborough, England in 1997 and subsequently completed his MFA at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, in 2001. He lives in Oak Park, Illinois and is an Adjunct Instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Recent exhibitions and screenings include “Chasing Two Rabbits” at Three Walls and (Con)Temporary Art Space both in Chicago.

Constable will install three large scale paper fold works presented on a ground of standard construction materials utilizing visual material gleaned from magazines and other mass media sources. These works elaborate on Constable’s longstanding fascination with the representation of power in the pages of magazines and displayed on the screen. Additionally Constable will exhibit a series of works titled “Caulfed Paintings.” These works aim to relate the substantial influence that the local extraction of aggregates exerts upon environment. Constable lives in rural Virginia where the mainstay of local commerce has, and continues to be, the extraction and distribution of coal. This industry’s revolution from underground to surface mining continues to fuel manifest industrial purposes. The specific extraction process utilized to service this demand operates as the object of these studies. As a process, Mountain-Top removal requires an overwhelming industrial effort, which results in the natural environments complete subordination and reorganization to those forces. David Constable received his BA in Fine Art from Grays School of Art, in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1989, and subsequently completed his MFA at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, in 2002. He lives in Norton, Virginia, and is an Adjunct instructor at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Recent exhibitions include ‘Marginal’ at The University of Seville, Department of Architecture, Seville, Spain, and a site-specific installation in the John Cooke Wyllie Library at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise.