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Open Type
Open Type
Featuring Mark Booth, Katie Hargrave and Brett Hunter, Lee Marchalonis, Buzz Spector, and Chris Walla
January 14 - February 20, 2016
Opening reception Thursday, January 14, 4-6pm
Artist talks Thursday, February 18, 5pm
A visual image is an illusory language to convey specific meaning. Balancing what is communicated clearly and what is left to the imagination of the viewer is one of the primary problems facing any artist. How does one successfully and efficiently impart a message, while still allowing room for interpretations? For decades, artists have been partnering text and visual information to manipulate the possibilities of communication. From literary inspired works by artists like Tom Phillips and Zak Smith, to the minimalist images Carl Andre created using solely punctuation, visual artists have added text and typography to the iconography of visual art.
The work presented in Open Type illustrates this expansion by visualizing the sort of directive mandate that only written and spoken language can convey. While each artist employs type, all strike a different balance between what is said through the written and what is implied by the visual. By referencing a range of typographical dialects from sign painting to fine press printing, the artists of Open Type directly manage our relationship to their work through a rich and nuanced appropriation of a world we take for granted as aesthetic.
Click for more information on each artist:
Katie Hargrave and Brett Hunter
Click below to download the exhibition catalog.
This exhibition is sponsored in part by J's Bikes in Terre Haute, IN.