ARCHIVES

BAM ARCHIVES ( 2015 -  )

PAPIER SURFIN
CURTIS STEELE

September 26 - November 13, 2019


This solo exhibition by former chair of the Department of Art + Design and professor of art, Curtis Steele, “focuses on the miniscule packaging of cigarette rolling papers.” He talks about his “fascination with the idea of the package as an art object” that he obtained at a young age by viewing works like Stuart Davis’ Lucky Strike, Edward Ruscha’s Actual Size, and Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes. He goes on to explain:

“When working on these pieces, there is a transcendental state that I enter where time has no significance. I work in solitude and in silence. Each Bezier curve I draw and each pixel I modify becomes the focus of eye and hand, an intuitive response, not the result of a conscious thought process. That is not to imply that there is no thought behind the work, the process is both meditative and stimulating. The result appears simple. Yet, in creating this apparent simplicity I find much satisfaction.”

Click here to view the handout for this exhibition.