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MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

ANN BENRUD, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONSABENRUD@MCAD.EDU • 612.874.3793

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Roman Verostko and the Cloud of Unknowing: From Ideas in Mind to Ideas in Code

Minneapolis, MN—December 20, 2018—The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is proud to present Roman Verostko and the Cloud of Unknowing: From Ideas in Mind to Ideas in Code.

The retrospective exhibition includes over seventy original works by Verostko, encompassing his pre-algorist work, pen and brush plotter drawings, early screen/video pieces, electronic machines, mural projects, artist books, and newer edition prints. One of the artist’s pen plotters will be featured, as will selections from his archives of detailed notes, equations, and codes. Rather than a strict chronological retrospective, the exhibition will be organized around major themes that appear throughout Verostko’s work, such as his search for pure form, his interest in logic, his merging of eastern and western aesthetics and philosophy, and his understanding of his home “Pathway Studio” as a modern day electronic scriptorium.

A full-color, 168-page exhibition catalog will accompany the retrospective, designed by MCAD alumni Michael and Suzanne Welch of Abzorb Design, and features three essays by leading scholars Christiane Paul (professor in the School of Media Studies at The New School and adjunct curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art), Grant D. Taylor (professor of Art History at Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania) and Bruce Wands (former director, New York Digital Salon and chair of the MFA Computer Art Department at the School of Visual Arts). While the exhibition is on view, Christiane Paul and Grant D. Taylor will participate in a panel discussion with Verostko, moderated by Steve Dietz (new media curator and founder of NorthernLights.mn) highlighting Verostko’s significant contributions to the field of digital arts.

This project has been generously supported by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation with additional funding by David E. Moore.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

Exhibition Dates: January 22–February 24, 2019Reception: Friday, January 25, 2019, 6:00–8:00 p.m.Panel Discussion: Tuesday, February 19, 2019, 1:00–2:00 p.m. Moderated by Steven Dietz and

featuring Roman Verostko, Grant D. Taylor, and Christiane Paul. Where: MCAD Main and Concourse Gallery, 2501 Stevens Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404

Who: Free and open to the public

The Cloud of Unknowing2003

algorithmic pen and ink plotter drawing23 x 29 in.

MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Roman Verostko (born 1929), an emeritus professor at MCAD who taught for twenty-six years and served in a variety of administrative positions, is a key figure in the development of generative, algorithmic art. Unlike many of his contemporaries who came from engineering and computer science backgrounds, Verostko was a Benedictine monk at St. Vincent Archabbey and a professionally-trained painter and scholar well-versed in the history of art, philosophy, logic, and theology before he started to work with electronic and digital media in the late 1960s.

Verostko has received significant recognition from organizations that have supported the development of digital art, including a 1993 Honorary Mention for the Prix Ars Electronica, a 1994 Golden Plotter first prize, a 1995 Recommendatory Prize from ARTEC, and the 2009 SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement. Over the course of his career, Verostko’s work has appeared in over a hundred exhibitions nationally and internationally, and to date he has twenty-two published articles on subjects ranging from abstract liturgical art to algorithmic and epigenetic art. His work is in numerous collections around the world, including the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL; Spalding University in Louisville, KY; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan; and ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The artist has been included in the exhibitions and related publications: Genetic Art - Artificial Life (1993), CODE - The Language of Our Time (2003), The Algorithmic Revolution (2004), and V&A Pattern: Digital Pioneers (2009). Recently, he was featured in Lynn Gamwell’s Mathematics in Art: A Cultural History (2015). In addition, he figures prominently in Grant D. Taylor’s book When the Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art (2014) and in a related exhibition organized by Taylor, The American Algorists: Linear Sublime. His work was included in the summer 2017 Venice exhibition Algorithmic Signs, curated by Francesca Franco, and most recently was featured in the 2018 exhibitions Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers at the V&A in London and Coder le monde at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

ABOUT THE MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGNRecognized nationally and internationally for its innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to visual arts education, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design is home to more than 750 students and offers professional certificates, bachelor of fine arts and bachelor of science degrees, and graduate degrees.

MCAD GALLERY HOURSMonday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.Sunday, noon–5:00 p.m.

Events and exhibitions are always free and open to the public. For more information or any disability accommodations, please contact Kerry Morgan, director of gallery and exhibition programs, at 612.874.3667 or gallery@mcad.edu.

For high resolution images contact Ann Benrud at abenrud@mcad.edu

The Cloud of Unknowing 2003 algorithmic pen and ink plotter drawing 23 x 29 in.

Sunrise on West 34th Street1962oil on canvas42 x 30 in.

The New City 1968 Mixed media with gesso base on wood panel48 x 48 in.

MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

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Eikon #2021971 acrylic with gesso base on masonite panel24 x 24 in.

Lung Shan (Dragon Mountain II)1989algorithmic pen, ink, and brush plotter drawing 40 x 30 in.

Untitled #811987algorithmic pen and brush plotter drawing19 x 24 in.

Ezekiel Series: Vision 21993, algorithmic pen, ink, and brush plotter drawing40 x 30 in.

Untitled 1989algorithmic brush, acrylic water color, and black ink plotter drawing 40 x 24 in.

Ezekiel Series: Vision 2detail

Lung Shan (Dragon Mountain II)detail

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Pearl Park Scripture, D, 2005, algorithmic pen and ink plotter drawing with hand-applied gold leaf, 20 x 30 in.

Three-Story Drawing Machine, 2011, projection of drawing machine in real time, dusk to dawn on June 4–5, Northern Spark all-night arts festival, presented by Northern Lights.mn with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine #23,1998, algorithmic pen and ink plotted drawing with hand-applied gold leaf, 22 x 30 in.

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Epigenesis: Growth of Form, 1997, algorithmic pen and brush plotter drawings with hand-applied gold leaf, 9 x 40 ft., Frey Science and Engineering Center, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.

(Continued, page 4)For high resolution images contact Ann Benrud at abenrud@mcad.edu

Epigenesis: Growth of Form(1/16 model), 1996, algorithmic pen and brush plotter draw-ings with hand-applied gold leaf, 18 x 76 in., model for mural in the Frey Science and Engineering Center, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Photo: Rik Sferra.