Julie Ganser

These new paintings acknowledge the ubiquity of the square in the pattern of human progress and investigate the role of the grid in the evolution (and perhaps impending de-evolution) of culture.  What began with the simple stacking of earthen or stone cubes to erect a barrier to the outside world has escalated and morphed to our present virtual dependence on the glowing pixel-grid of entertainment and enlightenment - the digital screen. 

My work seeks to combine a futurist interpretation of the seductive power of these grids with a vision of nature in suspended animation.  My most recent pieces are comprised of multiple layers of common art and craft materials, assembled in a way that emphasizes an other-worldly appearance.  Representations of natural objects are trapped behind a pixilated, vitreous screen which partly obscures, sometimes reveals, and often even highlights their position behind the painted veil.  In imitation of digital screens, the paintings emit a subtle eerie glow, as if somehow lit-from-within (they aren't).

Painters have long foreshadowed the inevitability of the grid's effect on the subtle narrowing of our focus - Piet Mondrian and Agnes Martin seem almost prescient in their allegiance to cool, geometric pixels.   Who could blame them their devotion?  Grids are clean, predictable, beautifully controllable, and steadfastly serve the creative impulse.  They are still our best tool for barrier-building and we love that they are easily pierced with windows so we can still peek at what we are sheltering ourselves from.

That most pure of all grids, the digital screen, features minute pixels of stained light that enable us to view the world through the periscope of someone else's explorations.  Technical wizardry renders these "experiences" in enough satisfying detail that many would be content to never again set foot outside on grass or soil.  Out there life begins, grows, and dies a wintry death.  Sometimes beloved people and objects go away and never come back.  But the images in our screens are safe and secure and can be resurrected at the touch of a button.  To be sure they are always cold to the touch, but they are also comfortingly manageable when experienced one frame at a time.