Art and technology join hands in the display of animation art from the 1970’s and computer assisted art from the 1980’s.”

ANIMATION ART
The animation cels of Mr. Magoo and Gerald Mc Boing-Boing by the late Jules Engel with be on view. Engel was one of the founders of the innovative animation studio UPA where he, along with Robert Cannon, developed 'toons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing, Madeline and Mr. Magoo.

Beginning in 1959, Engel joined forces with friend Herb Klynn to start Format Films. There, he worked on several popular cartoon shows including The Alvin Show and The Lone Ranger as well as the major animated film “Fantasia”. Engel also collaborated with Dr. Seuss, author Theodore Geisel and Oscar-winning filmmaker and designer Saul Bass. In 1962, he produced the Oscar-nominated animated short “Icarus Montgolfier Wright” which was based on a script by science fiction writer Ray Bradbury about the first human travel to the moon.

Engel's fine art and graphic works have been shown in museums and galleries since 1945, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

COMPUTER ART
In 1988 an exhibit titled "CRASH (ComputeR AssiSted Hardcopy)
was presented in 1988 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The intent was to show how the computer was being used by artists to produce prints, drawings and paintings –then a relatively new art form.. Featured artists included George Cramer, Manfred Mohr, Barbara Nessim, Lillian Schwartz, Joan Truckenbrod and Roman Verotsko. Today, these artists have reached high levels of achievement and recognition in the ‘Computer Art’ genre. A sampling of their work will be presented in the current show.

For each of these artists the digital medium is an essential part of the inspiration for their art, integral to the development of idea, imagery, and composition. Each use the computer as one of their creative tools; however, each has invented distinctively personal approaches to the digital process and the printing approach. Photography, lithography, inkjet paintings, and plotter drawings are among the techniques employed. The visual impact of these aesthetically and intellectually stimulating works demonstrates how powerful the digital medium can be in the true artist's hands.

GALLERY STATEMENT:
"Our international collection of fine art focuses on artists from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States. We work directly with the artists featured in our gallery to insure that the artwork we carry is of the finest quality. We strive to learn as much as possible about the artist and to follow his/her career and development. Each piece of artwork has a story. We do our best to know and to understand the nature of the work, the artist's philosophy in creating it, and the way it fits into the art world as a whole."