Storrs and Rowe to open new exhibitions

Two new exhibitions will open on Monday, March 13, with receptions in Rowe and Storrs Galleries. The Department of Art and Art History will present “Mechanical Eye” in Rowe Lower Gallery through Wednesday, March 29. This display will feature the work of Rob Carter, McColl Center for Art + Innovation/UNC Charlotte Artist-in-Residence, and students in Associate Professor of Art Jeff Murphy’s Video Art course. The School of Architecture will present “Tensional Topography” in Storrs Gallery through Saturday, April 22, featuring work by Visiting Assistant Professor Jeffrey Nesbit and student design assistant Andrew Beres.

Each year the UNC Charlotte Department of Art and Art History partners with the McColl Center for Art + Innovation to provide a special educational experience for students through hosting a shared artist-in-residence. The McColl artist joins a UNC Charlotte faculty member to teach a spring semester course, culminating in an exhibition in Rowe Galleries.

The video art in “Mechanical Eye” addresses the local Mecklenburg area in all its diversity, viewed through the varied “mechanical eyes” of 16 different artists. Each video focuses on one aspect of the city or county – from ethnic cuisines to playgrounds and from farming to sports – to create an experiential and informative portrait of the Charlotte area.

“Tensional Topography” uses digital technologies to expand upon the investigations of experimental architect Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012). Woods was fascinated, in particular, by the impact of natural and man-made forces, such as earthquakes or war, on the built environment; his work presents architecture in a state of tension and transformation, rather than a state of stability. While Woods worked entirely in analog mediums and methods, creating drawings and models by hand, he acknowledged that the digital had become central to the practice – and the future – of architecture.

Nesbit and Beres have used the digital to push Woods’ concepts even further, their sophisticated computations and experimentations producing a series of digitally fabricated prints, drawings and models for the exhibition.

The March 13 opening receptions, scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m., will include brief statements from the artists.