Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to announce the opening of August Muth‘s solo exhibition Tactile Radiance. August Muth is an internationally exhibited artist who uses holography to integrate art, science and philosophical inquiry into the nature of light, perception, and understanding of reality. On a technical level, his pioneering hologram artworks combine elements of sculpture, photography, and laser technology. Aesthetically, his beautifully refined compositions present a small number of elemental forms, such as overlapping rectangles and arcs in colored light, which hover within or in front of a color field. Experientially, the works evoke wonder and perceptual bewilderment. Light-infused objects project outward from the glass surface not as an illusion, but as something the viewer can physically engage. Objects can appear behind the picture plane, somehow within and beyond the glass, displaying impossible depth. Muth is motivated both by the pursuit of capturing light and by the challenge it poses to human perception and philosophy. A hologram records matter on a photosensitive surface via light waves that interfere with an object at a certain moment in time and place (such as the artist’s studio). It then re-presents that object in the form of light at a later moment and indefinitelyinto the future.Present light enacts the past. This time/space transference relates to the wonders of photography as well as to starlight,which is visible eons after a star has extinguished. Interestingly, many people viewing holograms erroneously perceive them as optical illusions when the opposite is true-they are in fact, as Muth says,”photonic truth.” Ultimately, Muth aims to open up a space where viewers explore their own perception and question what is real versus illusion. He believes the resulting “perceptual evolution” may enable us “to keep pace with our technological revolution.” About the Artist: August Muth, based in Santa Fe, NM, has been exploring holography for over 30 years. Born in Albuquerque in 1955, he studied art and physics at the University of New Mexico. Between 1976 and 1978, he studied sculpture at the University of Texas, Houston and visual art and astronomy at the University of Texas, Austin. From 1983 to 1985, he engaged in an independent study at the Museum of Holography in NewYork City after which he apprenticed with holographers in Utah and MountainView, CA. Muth founded his own holography studio in Telluride, CO in 1985, which he moved to Santa Fe seven years later. In addition to his own work, Muth helps produce custom holograms for other artists, including JamesTurrell. August Muth’s artwork has been exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, including NewYork City, London, Milan and St.Petersburg. He has exhibited extensively throughout the Southwest United States, including the Center for Contemporary Arts and the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, in Santa Fe, NM. Muth both exhibited and is part of the collection at the MIT Museum, in Cambridge, MA. Additionally, he has work in the collections of the Museum of Holography in New York,NY. This is August Muth’s first solo exhibition with Chandra Cerrito Contemporary. |
