Continuing through October 24, 2015
As a viewer approaches the LED lightboxes of Chicago artist Jeroen Nelemans, shimmering, neon colors shift from turquoise to fuchsia to violet. Nelemans, whose practice has long explored the ways that light and the digital experience affect our perception of images, is here dismantling and manipulating the technology that’s ever present in our daily lives: the LED backlighting of our computer, television, smartphone and tablet screens. Notably, Nelemans’ manipulation of this technology isn’t about exploiting errors in the media or delighting in the glitches; rather, the artist amplifies the aesthetic potential that is latent within these materials.
Nelemans’ “Between a Solid and Liquid Space” series uses polarizing filters and carefully cut pieces of clear acrylic to bend light into blocks of colors in formal compositions that reference Op Art, Minimalism and Light and Space. But it’s the artist’s “to be Crystal Clear” series that best illustrates the physicality behind such illusionistic media. In this series, instead of cut acrylic it’s crumpled cellophane that refracts the light. With these humble scraps of material, Nelemans creates an experience that is both accessible and transcendent.
