Nate Boyce
Plinth Inhibitor
December 14–March 16, 2013
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
724 South 12th Street
Omaha, NE 68102
T 402 341 7130
info [at] bemiscenter.org
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is proud to present an exhibition of newly commissioned works by San Francisco-based video artist/sculptor Nate Boyce. The sculptures and video works in this exhibition represent Boyce’s first major solo institutional exhibition in the United States.
In his newest works, Boyce develops a dynamic feedback loop that intertwines animated video with pedestal-like sculptures, specific art historical references and our spatial perception of the gallery space. Simultaneously utilizing contemporary and obsolete software, and techniques that range from industrial production to the handmade, the works hover between digital and physical realms. His inexplicable sculptures access an uncanny space, in which the video image, the objects represented through video, sculptural supports and the gallery’s architecture dissolve into a uniform terrain.
Boyce’s process begins with carving abstract objects from foam, coating the foam in plaster and then airbrushing the objects in metallic, iridescent or pearlescent colors. Boyce films the objects in rotation and processes this footage through analog and 3D modeling software, arriving at looped sequences that layer multiple forms of mediation. Resistant to easy historical classification, these richly textured images of objects evoke the cast bronzes of Moore and Boccioni, physically destabilized and threatening to return to a molten state. The videos are presented on industrial LCD screens, mounted to welded-steel and powder-coated or airbrushed structures that parody the notion of a pedestal while simultaneously verging on becoming sculptures in themselves.
In this exhibition, Boyce approaches dimensionality, representation, and temporality as malleable forms of the same toolkit. The works create platforms rich with associative potential, including both Boyce’s specific references and open source possibilities. Highly interested in the divide between the abstraction present in early video and Structuralist film, and the concerns of modernist painting and sculpture, Boyce’s works achieve a middle-ground, yet resist revisionism to propose a forward path where divided histories, physical and rendered forms share the same gravity.
Nate Boyce: Plinth Inhibitor is curated by Hesse McGraw, chief curator of the Bemis Center.
All works courtesy of Altman Siegel Gallery and the artist.
About the Artist
Nate Boyce lives and works in San Francisco. His recent solo shows include Knockdown Texture at Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco, and IMO, Copenhagen; and his work was featured in the California Biennial, 2010.He has participated in group shows at Vilma Gold, London; Jack Hanley, San Francisco; Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles; Landings Project Space, Oslo; Deitch Projects, New York; Ullens Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing; Galerie Neue Alte Bruecke, Frankfurt; Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco; and the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose. Boyce participated in the 2010 exhibition Borderland Abstraction at the Bemis Center. His work is included in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Nate Boyce is also actively involved in the experimental music scene, collaborating and touring with musical acts including Matmos and Oneohtrix Point Never with whom he has performed at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Royal Festival Hall, London; The Barbican, London; and The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, among others. Boyce is represented by Altman Siegel Gallery, San Francisco.
About the Bemis Center
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts was founded in 1981 by artists, for artists. Bemis Center’s sole mission is to support contemporary artists of exceptional talent. In this spirit, the Bemis Center seeks to perpetually give the institution to artists working at the forefront of contemporary culture. Our international artist-in-residence program, exhibitions, projects and community arts programs provide direct support to artists’ process and catalyze their work to engage and challenge the public.
Presenting Sponsor: Omaha Steaks
Sponsors: Justin V. Allen Design + Development, Lorelle Carr, Clark Creative Group, Davis Erection and Crane Rental & Rigging, Echo Systems, Education Power | Robert Webber, Larry Gawel Photography, Chris Headley / OmahaComputerHelp.com, Min | Day, Nebraska Arts Council, Nebraska Cultural Endowment, Rybin Plumbing & Heating, Laura and Gregory Schnackel, Sherwin Williams, Upstream Brewing Company, Visions Custom Framing, Warren Distribution
For more information: info [at] bemiscenter.org
