Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Anne Spalter: Artist Biography


"I'm Leaving You For The Groove"
Anne Spalter is an artist and professor at RISD who tries to use her work as a means to integrate technology and art. Her art educational background is in painting, and she equates her pieces, which consist of several layers of video stills, to "action painting." Spalter spends a great deal of time collecting  images from specific locations, often large cities such as Las Vegas, New York, and Dubai, then combining and manipulating the elements of several images into a single piece. Through her work, Spalter examines the concept of industrial landscapes in digital and traditional mediums. 

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Spalter's pieces are an interesting balance between chaos (created by the overload of visual images compressed into her works) and control (all of her pieces are manipulated to create a sense of symmetry and intent). While Spalter manipulates her images to create new and unique forms, it is also possible for the viewer to discern recognizable objects in her images, such as cars, stoplights, and trees. This combination creates a sort of visual puzzle; familiar objects are now viewed through a new visual "language" created in Spalter's works.

I find Spalter's artwork to be very original and relatable. I love that she equates her process with the more traditional art medium of painting, and I think her attempts to connect art and technology are successful. Her pieces show an obvious mastery in both fields, and her combinations of the two feel natural, yet still innovative. Spalter also creates video art, which I feel is slightly less successful than her stills. I think what makes her still images so powerful is the integration of familiar, recognizable objects with abstracted digital techniques. This allows the viewer to connect with the piece, and simultaneously appreciate Spalter's technical mastery. However, I felt her video works were harder to relate to for the average viewer. Perhaps the integration of sound in these videos could remedy this.

Overall, I think Anne Spalter's art is very successful, and her combination of traditional and new media is impressive. Her commentary on the modern industrial landscape is also very relevant and poignant in our modern society. 

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I absolutely love both of Spalter's pieces. The symmetry makes the image feel simplified and clean. I really enjoy how at first glance they appear to be nothing more than kaleidoscopic patterns but upon closer inspection aspects of everyday life can be identified.

    (Unrelated note:these would make neat t-shirts)

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  3. Instantly when I looked at both pieces, I felt like I was lost in a busy, complicated city so I feel like Spatler succeeds in creating industrial landscapes. The patterns and colors of the images give off that industrial, city-like impression and I like how you can get lost in the picture with all the kaleidoscopic patterns. In a way they are kind of like Carl Fudge's pieces as well.

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  4. Anne Spalter's art is very eye dazzling. Anne's art is very colorful, and often reminds me of a vortex that is eager to suck you in. Her work showcases industrialization, and community, and the fact that i relate her images to that of a black hole really says something about our economy, which you have mentioned.

    Her technique is somewhat difficult which mean she takes her time to organize her stills into symmetry.

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  5. I really like the idea of the combination of chaos and control in the context of a city, because I often feel that it's the mixture of the two that make cities so beautiful and powerful. Spalter seems to feel the same as she is choosing to show specific places in her art, but through her own unique lens.

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  6. Spalter's artwork gives a fresh and modern aspect to art. The combination of city scenes and kaleidoscope patterns portrays a new outlook on things we see everyday, like cross walks and city streets. Choosing to use kaleidoscope patterns is very complimentary to the scenery she chooses to use because of the linear and geometric shapes seen in cities that are played up by the addition of kaleidoscope patterns.

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  7. I really like Anne Spalter's kaleidoscope pictures. The scenery of the original pictures is really nice and the symmetry of the pictures is really interesting. I definitely agree that the combination of chaos and control of the pictures is amazing. The pictures are not too overwhelming and busy, but still show many images.

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  8. These are sick, they look like industrial flowers or some kind of metropolis lotus. The patterns in her work, as Anne pointed out, are what really make these pieces pop out. Perhaps it's just the fact that I come from a metropolitan area but it's kind of strange to see these consistent that surround many city dwellers but go unnoticed for the most part. It's strange but you can tell some parts of Vegas or Miami were definitely used in the first piece.

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  9. Hey, you guys, thanks for all the nice comments!! Its great to know that people are enjoying the works. You can see them all -- as well as sometimes works in progress-- on my web site at annespalter.com. Thanks again :-)

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