Etherton Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition highlighting work by Arizona artists Matt Magee and Albert Chamillard, and artists of the Keram River of Papua New Guinea, A Patterned Language. A Patterned Language highlights the use of innovative visual languages to explain universal stories of modern life. The exhibition opens with an artist reception and book signing at the gallery, 7-10pm, Saturday April 27, 2019 and runs through June 15.

The work featured in A Patterned Language, provides an antidote to the brave new world we live in where machines shape what we see, how we learn and what we know.  From the cameras attached to traffic lights to the invisible Facebook algorithms that feed us “fake news,” machine intelligence guides our daily lives. Phoenix artist Matt Magee is particularly concerned about the ways in which technology has become so embedded in our daily existence, it is no longer visible. Responding with his own visual syntax, Magee’s painting and mixed media work are filled with the stylized dots and dashes that make this code visible. We search for meaning in his abstract universe but also fall in love with the syncopated rhythms and colorful patterns of paintings like Information Science, 2018.

Tucson’s own Albert Chamillard makes pen and ink drawings of abstract geometric shapes on vintage ledger paper or larger sheets of mould made cotton paper. His cross-hatching, invokes the earliest written form of written language, cuneiform, which was used for record keeping. Chamillard wields an ultra fine, Pilot G2 pen, methodically creating the small, freehand marks that construct the finished drawing. Much of the work featured in A Patterned Language is centered on the life cycles of Spring — birth, death, and renewal — as in Fornication, 2018.

Also on display, Story Boards, two dimensional wooden sculptures carved by Artists of the Keram River in Papua New Guinea, which narrate the daily struggles of village life and record the stories of the people, their ancestors, and the spirits who guide them. These carvings were collected by Tucsonans and New Guinea art experts, Ron Perry and Carolyn Leigh. Perry began traveling to Papua New Guinea in the late 1950s, and is responsible for introducing Story Boards to an American audience.

For more information about A Patterned Language,
contact Daphne Srinivasan or Hannah Glasston at (520) 624-7370 or info@ethertongallery.com