ABOUT THE ART:

Among the art currently on exhibit at The Williams Gallery are two of Roman Verostko’s most recent works: ‘Burning Bush’ and ‘Cyberflower’.

‘Burning Bush’ from the Diamond Lake Apocalypse Series, a pen drawing on 23" x 29" Strathmore paper, depicts a vivid surreal magenta and blue ‘bush’ on the left side of the page. The right side holds glyph text-like images embellished with gold leaf, reminiscent of text in an illuminated manuscript. The resulting work is startling in composition and color, yet contemplative in mood.

‘Cyberflower, on 29" x 22" Strathmore paper, is a pen drawing consisting of exquisitely fine curved lines which overlap and intertwine to produce an organic likeness to the quintessential floras of nature. From a unique series of individual ‘cyber’ images created by the artist ‘Cyberflower’ is rendered in verdant color and could be likened in concept to the surreal images of Georgia O’Keefe. The skill and artistic rendering of the Verostko’s work offer the viewer an insight into the beauty of art, nature and science.

Sculpture and paintings of gallery artists Susumu Endo, Jerome Collins, Jane Eccles, Tom George, Tanya Kohn and Yoshikatsu Tamekane will also be on display.

ROMAN VEROSTKO, artist, historian, and MCAD Professor Emeritus, was born in 1929 at Tarrs Pennsylvania. He is internationally recognized as one of the leading artists in the new medium of computer related fine art. As a child he made his first paintings using a mail-order paint set. Today his studio includes a network of computers coupled to pen plotters driven with his own original software. By 1987 he created the world's first software driven "brushed" paintings with oriental brushes mounted on his pen plotter. His studio integrates coded digital procedure with fine arts traditions.

Trained as an abstract painter, Verostko continued his artistic work during his service as a Benedictine Monk at St. Vincent’s Archabbey (1959-68), and his residency and visiting professorship in China. During the last 15 years he has expanded his artistic medium to incorporate the use of the computer in the creation of his work. To achieve effects unique to his style, he has composed software programs to drive a pen plotter and in 1994 was recipient of the Golden Plotter First Prize (Gladbeck, Germany). He has published many articles and lectured internationally on the subject of "Art and Algorithm".

Verostko describes his unique plotter paintings as "aesthetic manifestations of the spiritual, the visual , and the intellectual". Over the years his software has evolved by stages to yield a series of works for each stage . The works currently on display are selected from his Pathway, Gaia, Diamond Lake Apocalypse and Ezekiel plotter paintings. A combination of watercolor inks applied using plotter pens and paint brushes and lastly, gold leaf applied by hand, produce the finished work. The quality of an illuminated manuscript is produced with the language of the algorithmic shapes evocative of text.

The Golden Plotter Award
Recipient of the Golden Plotter First Prize (1994, Gladbeck, Germany) and an Ars Electronica award (1993), Verostko’s work has been exhibited in major art and technology exhibitions on four continents including "Genetic Art and Artificial Life" (Linz, 1993) and the ARTEC 1995 Biennial (Nagoya, Japan). As program director for the Fourth International Symposium on Electronic Art (1993) he led this historic conference to focus on "the art factor". Recent commissioned work includes a 40 foot algorithmic mural, in the new Science and Engineering Center at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul Campus, 1997).