Winter exhibits to be offered at VCU's Anderson Gallery

By Shelagh Greenwood and Lissette Linares

RICHMOND, Va. – The Anderson Gallery will open 2001 with "Time Memory and Meditation: Works by Jim Campbell" and "A Century of Innovative Book Design," from Jan. 26 – March 4 at the Virginia Commonwealth University Gallery, 907 1/2 W. Franklin St.

"Time, Memory and Meditation: Works by Jim Campbell" will feature electronic sculptures utilizing cutting-edge computer technology. The nine-piece solo exhibition will include selected works from the digitally recorded "Memory Works Series," two installations "Digital Watch" and "Experiments in Touching Color," and two new works featuring collapsed film sequences titled, "Illuminated Averages."

"We wanted to produce an exhibition that blended the best of sculpture with computer technology and engineering," said Amy Moorefield, the Anderson Gallery’s assistant director and exhibition co-curator. "Jim Campbell’s work, which is highly intelligent and extremely innovative, accomplishes that objective."

Campbell, who works three days a week as an engineer in Silicon Valley, believes that art and technology feed from each other. Using photographs, lights, personal heartbeat and body rhythms, custom electronics and LCD material, video cameras and projectors, he creates innovative installations that encourage viewer participation. He calls his art "a search for truth more than a search for beauty," and describes his exhibits as "interactive between the viewer and themselves."

"Often the criticism of artwork using hi-tech technology is that the artwork has little or no content, or that it’s a trick or an interesting device, but that it’s not art or that it’s bad art. This is not the case in Campbell’s work," said Bob Kaputof, VCU associate professor of kinetic imagery and exhibition co-curator. "Campbell blends technology, metaphor, memory and perception beautifully. He makes very unique digital sculptures."

Born in Chicago, Campbell received degrees in both mathematics and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and his work is collected by major museums and art centers around the world. The VCU exhibition marks the first time the San Francisco-based artist’s work has been showcased in Virginia.

The Anderson Gallery’s second new show, "A Century of Innovative Book Design," is a traveling exhibition from the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, Ohio. Curated by Christopher Hoot, a UA associate professor of art and graphic design, the hands-on exhibition focuses on mass-produced publications rather than limited edition or one-of-a-kind artist’s books.

"The power and beauty of finely designed books stand the test of time and speak to the collaboration of each generation’s writers and artists," said Ted Potter, Anderson Gallery director. "This is not only an engaging exhibition, it is a road map that tracks this journey during the 20th century."

The exhibition shows book design in a wide cultural context and highlights innovations in text and image presentation, use of materials, historic impact and the application of new technologies. Titles include "The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer" by William Morris; "A Toute Epreuve" by Joan Miro; "The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering" by Frederic W. Goudy; and "Jazz" by Henri Matisse.

The exhibition includes more than 100 books arranged in "reading room" displays that are suggestive of art movements of the last century. The nine sculptural displays in the exhibition were inspired by the concept of pop-up books and are representative of movements such as Arts and Crafts, Expressionism, Pop Art and Post-modernism.