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WHITNEY MUSEUM’S MAJOR EXHIBITION ON DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO FEATURE NEW MEDIA WORK BY CREATIVE CAPITAL ARTISTS

Works by three grantees are among those selected for BitStreams, the museumäs first comprehensive look at the impact of digital media in American art

NEW YORK, NY (March 12, 2001) – An exhibition to showcase the latest technology in digital art will feature work by three artists currently funded by Creative Capital Foundation, the New York–based nonprofit arts organization. Surveying the digital field and capturing the moment of technological panache in the artworld, the Whitney Museum of American Art mounts BitStreams March 22–June 10, 2001 with new media and sound projects by more than fifty artists, including Creative Capital grantees Leah Gilliam, Jason Salavon, and John F. Simon, Jr. Selected by Whitney curators Lawrence Rinder and Debra Singer, the grantees’ projects on view use old and new technologies in abstract prints of digitized images from popular culture, in software developed from Bauhaus color theory, and for a post-apocalyptic installation using obsolete Macintosh computers and Super-8 stills from the film Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

While BitStreams is being touted as a break-through exhibition for a media considered revolutionary, some veteran artists of the field feel it is perhaps overdue. "We can no longer ignore the impact of digital technology on the world around us," says John F. Simon, Jr., "so the timing is good for a show like this."

About the Artists

Leah Gilliam is a New York–based artist and currently Assistant Professor of Film at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. Her project, Apeshit v3, is a computer-based installation-environment that uses analog electronic and digital effects to process an obscure Super-8 film print from the Planet of the Apes series. Gilliam will participate in the series Seminars with Artists at the Whitney, Tuesday, April 17, 7:00–8:15 PM.

Born in Louisiana, John F. Simon, Jr. now lives and works in New York. Simon uses programming language to create time-based images. For BitStreams, he will be showing two pieces of software on 50" gas-plasma screens and Apple G3 Powerbooks. The first software, Color Panel v1.5, is a time-based color study whose code references rules of Bauhaus color theory developed by Joseph Albers and Johannes Itten. The other, CPU 1.5, uses the programmed circulation of small color squares to explore the emergent behavior of patterns and form. Concurrently, Simon’s work can also be seen at Sandra Gering Gallery, New York from March 29 to April 21, 2001.

Jason Salavon is an artist living in Chicago. His digital C-prints, Cibachromes, and Iris prints of computer-manipulated images exaggerate the randomness of deviations visually possible. Informed by popular culture iconography including yearbook photos, superheroes, and film stills from Deep Throat, Star Wars, and Titanic, his work results in unique permutations that reflect the complexity of a super-information digital age. Salavon is represented by The Project, New York where he is scheduled for an exhibition in October 2001.