Squeaky Wheel: Here + Now Media Artist Showcase

HERE + NOW MEDIA ARTIST SHOWCASE
FRI., SEP. 14TH @ 7:00 PM       LOCATION: SQUEAKY WHEEL MICROCINEMA

 < - - - - still from Pierrot by Ryan Hoover

Join us for an evening with 9 media artists currently living and working in the Western NY region. See their work, learn about their practice, and exchange ideas. Consider this a more in-depth take on Pecha Kucha Nights, featuring  under-10-minute art presentations by Brandon Barr, Tra Bouscaren, Derek Curry + Jennifer Gradecki, Ryan Hoover, Matt McCormick, Eliseo Ortiz, Tanya Stadelmann, and David Tolkacz. Presentations will be followed by an open Q&A session with all artists.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Brandon Barr is an interdisciplinary artist with an emphasis in digital media. He is a graduate student in the Electronic Integrated Arts program at Alfred University and is currently in the process of creating The Libation Series, a work that builds upon previous explorations of the physical and metaphorical properties of water.

Glitching the boundaries between video, painting, performance, collage, sound, the written word, and sculpture both kinetic and still, Tra Bouscaren is a post-disciplinary artist and researcher. Concerned with questions of relational teleology, Bouscaren’s research and artistic production of late has pursued reciprocal systems, hallucination, catastrophe, macaronic verse as applied to written as well as visual languages, and the reading of metaphysics as comedy. Coming from a background in Philosophy at Yale and moving towards a doctorate in Media Studies at Buffalo, his intention is to contribute to the field of aesthetics from the perspective of the working artist.

Derek Curry (Pittsburgh, 1976) earned a BFA in photography from USF in 2007. Jennifer Gradecki (Milwaukee, 1980) earned a BFA in sculpture and experimental psychology from UWM in 2007. Curry and Gradecki received their MFAs from UCLA in 2010, and are currently PhD candidates at SUNY Buffalo. Curry’s work uses various materials, from copyright law to bacteria, frequently involves viewer participation, and intends to show people’s actions as a performance that can be read as a statement. Gradecki utilizes techniques employed by social scientists, investigating and displaying participant behaviors, systems of power relations and perceptions constructed through social, political and economic interests.

Ryan Hoover is currently a 2nd year MFA candidate in the Electronic Integrated Arts program at Alfred University. He received a BFA (Painting/Drawing) from the University of Michigan in 2004 and studied photography at the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 2002. He has travelled widely and worked as a photographer for the University of Michigan, documenting and comparing contemporary social issues in Southeast Asia.

Eliseo Ortiz was born in Monterrey, Mexico (1985). He received a B.A. in communication science from ITESM (2009) and an M.A. in visual studies at visual arts school UANL (2012). He was recently awarded with a Fulbright scholarship for MFA Studies and has created a body of artwork on film and video that explores the construction of memory and space.

Matt McCormick's work crosses mediums and defies genre distinctions to fashion witty, abstract observations of contemporary culture and the urban landscape. He has had three films screen at the Sundance Film Festival, and has had work screened or exhibited at MoMA, The Serpentine Gallery, The Oslo Museum of Modern Art, the Reykjavik Art Museum, The Viennale, SXSW, The Seattle Art Museum, and in 2007 he was selected to participate in both the Moscow Biennial and Art Basil. In 1996 Matt started the Peripheral Produce experimental film screening series and video distribution label. He also founded the PDX Film Festival in 2001 and served as the festival’s executive director until 2008.

Tanya Stadelmann is a Swiss-Australian filmmaker, media artist and teacher who has been working internationally as a cinematographer, director and editor on dramas, documentaries and music videos, and also as a publicity photographer for television and theater. Her work as a cinematographer has been broadcast nationally on Australian television and has screened at Cannes Film Festival and other festivals around the world. She has created multi-media projections for Sydney Arts Festival, Sydney Opera House, The Art Institute in San Francisco and Det Apne Theater in Oslo, Norway. Tanya has also performed at the Andy Warhol Museum with The Jilted Brides, made video projections for Pittsburgh theatre troupe Squonk Opera and has worked on commissioned short documentaries for The Pittsburgh Glass Center and Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Her most recent work has been a video collaboration with Finnish journalist Kirsi Jansa on the Heinz Endowment grant funded: Gas Rush Stories, a series of short documentaries about natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

David Tolkacz is an experimental poet specializing in computer generated poetry. He is a member of the Gnoetry Group, a collective of poets who work collaboratively with technology. His work has appeared in BlazeVox and Moria Poetry, but David has since taken to self publishing his work and distributing it through google code or blogger
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