New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct

On October 26, 2004, the Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, will open New Math: Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct. On view through December 12, 2004, the exhibition brings together more than thirty artists whose works are variously related to the operations, theories, and cultural history of mathematics. Featured are installation and computer-generated art as well as more traditional art media such as painting, graphic art, and sculpture. Represented artists include Max Bill, Mel Bochner, Agnes Denes, Alfred Jensen, and Sol LeWitt...

...and Roman Verostko, an artist who likes to call himself an algorist together with artist friends like Jean-Pierre Hebert, Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnar, etc. I like Roman's work which is executed with plotters but often resembles hand written calligraphy. For highlights he applies a little touch of gold sometimes by hand as well. Some pieces have almost spiritual qualities and take on the look of medieval holy scriptures drawn meticuously by monks in many hours of silent dedicated work to help promote the word.

In some sense Roman Verostko is a very contemporary monk promoting the spirituality of the machine. For instance when he takes the seemingly endless line of zeros and ones of the Turing number and creates a shrine for it for us to marvel at. Of course our little pic here made up of a few pixels does not do justice to the majestic and intricate visual power of the original piece. Come to think of it, the physical beauty of his original drawing is a good proof that originals do exist in our digital world.

The show has been organized by the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth and has travelled now to its final destination at the University of Richmond Museums. This is your last chance to see it.