Ongoings: The Fine Arts Gallery

The SIGGRAPH 97 art gallery broke from SIGGRAPH tradition by presenting a body of work for each of a few artists, as opposed to exhibiting a survey of work by many artists. As a result, the Ongoings Gallery showcased artists' ongoing creative vision. In conjunction with the show, Art and Design Sketches featured an Artist Presentation Session, where the artists discussed their processes and content.

Artworks were selected in a competitive, open-submission process where the artists submitted a body of work. Of particular interest were works that used the computer in a creative way. The majority of the submissions were print works, and the number of submissions easily exceeded 1,000. Six artists were selected to exhibit a large number of works. Seven artists were selected to exhibit two or three works. "In producing an exhibition of this kind, my goal was to create a place for the world to see the ongoing creative vision of artists who are dedicated to the use of technology in their art," said Lynn Pocock, Ongoings Chair. "We want the SIGGRAPH 97 audience to leave the gallery with an understanding of the passion of these artists."

 Ongoings Highlights

John S. Banks
Rising Star Ltd.

These print images are the artist's attempt at visualizing and clarifying a sense of discovery -- some of the various states that may be experienced on a "journey." Doorways, paths, altars, and windows are the central elements.

Sheriann Ki-Sun Burnham
Independent Artist

These works are a continuing exploration in the formal aspects of abstracted space and form. The prints invite the viewer to explore a unique visual space, finding their own interpretation.

Anna M. Chupa
Mississippi State University

These compelling light boxes present visually rich, mystical images, some of which combine personal narrative with imagery inspired by African Vodun, popularly known as Voodoo. The body of work creates a mood and environment that is both haunting and beautiful.

Diane Fenster
Independent Artist

This autobiographical body of work addresses issues of self, gender, and intimacy using the concept of an archaeological excavation of memory as a metaphorical structure. These prints are a combination of myth, spirit, science, and technology, and their impact on the viewer is powerful on many levels.

Madge Gleeson
Western Washington University

This body of work presents the artist's interest in the role of new technology in shaping our cultural environment. The computer is both the means and indirectly the content of many of these unique mixed media pieces.

Phillip George
Independent Artist

These mixed-media works present the artist's interests in the ambiguity of the sea horse and the outright strangeness of the male of the species, who becomes pregnant and carries the young in a brood pouch.

Ken Gonzales-Day
Independent Artist

This collection of C-prints takes Goya's "Black Paintings" as a point of departure. The works draw attention to the fact that artists have always been engaged within a social discourse, and it is only with the emergence of a global society that the artist's role becomes increasingly unstable.

Jean-Pierre Hebert
Independent Artist

This set of prints resulted from a process that is a convergence of mathematics and drawing. The work is abstract and reflects the magic that is art -- with computer.

Chris S. Johnson
Northern Arizona University

These light boxes present a modern saint: the lifeguard. Through the journeys of the lifeguard, the images discuss the intricate connections holding our lives together.

Tammy Knipp
Florida Atlantic University

Through the interdisciplinary medium of computer-aided video/kinetic sculptures, the artist creates interactive, performative installations. Both visual and audio elements are simultaneously experienced in the physical domain -- challenging perceptions of reality through illusion.

Michael O'Rourke
Pratt Institute

This body of print work presents the artist's understanding and exploration of space: the way things are arranged in space, the emptiness of spaces, the clustering of objects within spaces, the emotional resonances of space.

Anna Ullrich
University of Notre Dame

This body of work seduces. The combination of real objects, photographs, and completely computer-generated imagery produces a hybridized landscape that is surreal in its incongruities and yet remains grounded because of references to the familiar.

Roman Verostko
Independent Artist

These art works -- representing 50 years of the artist's exploration of worlds of unseen form -- are visual manifestations of the dynamic software procedures by which they grew. They may be viewed as visual celebrations of the information processing procedures embedded in today's culture.