Opening Reception – Robin Eley- Prism

Prism, a solo show by Australian artist-in-residence Robin Eley, will feature an installation comprised of nine new oil on Belgian linen works and five innovative 3D-printed photopolymer sculptures. The exhibition will be accompanied by a 32-page show catalog featuring an essay written by Venita Poblocki, curator and visual arts coordinator for the Willoughby City Council in Sydney, Australia.

Every work in the Prism series begins with a digital model of each subject built on the 3D software platform Maya that has been simplified into an economic low-poly framework. This “wire frame,” as he refers to it, articulates enough visual information to function as a portrait, but lacks any nuance of convincing human identity. Maximizing the synthetic nature of this process, the digital frame is 3D printed in a series of interlocking photopolymer pieces, painstakingly sanded, glued and hand-polished, to make an expressionless transparent bust.  The clear prism casts no shadow, and lends little information about the person it represents. In a comment on our increasingly important digital identities, the prism is unrecognizably entrancing yet wholly empty, only refracting, reflecting and distorting the information from its surroundings.

Exhibit runs through November 29.