Tom Burtonwood Curates In Real Life at Platform

In this conversation we talk with curator and exhibiting artist Tom Burtonwood, about taking things from real life to digital formats and then back into real life in his upcoming show "In Real Life" at Platform in Evanston. The exhibiting artists include Aimée Beaubien, Nick Bontrager, Tom Burtonwood, Assaf Evron, Burton Isenstein, Christopher Meerdo, Rosalie Yu

This conversation goes in many places, walking through the art in the show, and talking about current challenges of how to know what is "real" and playing with what our minds and eyes think is real.

***

“In Real Life” is an exhibition of work made by artists concerned with the translation of the physical into the virtual and back again. They are invested in the production of art works and experiences to produce outcomes that probe and examine our relationship to the real and how we perceive it to be. While the pursuit and accordant unraveling of artifice is nothing new the current anxiety surrounding “fake news” and the malaise around what is presented to us as real opens up fertile ground to mine new modes of representation.

Volumetric image capture and reproduction represents an evolutionary moment for photography and other types of technical image making mediums. One that is tied inextricably to the history of the mechanical image but also points to many possible new futures in terms of interaction, and simulation. Central to this shift in types of representation is a set of technologies commonly referred to as 3D scanning.

Quietly and without great fanfare we are seeing image, object and time based media production collapse into singular streams of productive behavior. Scenes and surfaces are being generated from technical apparatus and fabricated without intervention from the hand of the artist. It is within this context that a new form of representation is evolving, a form of volumetric photography, that exists in many different versions congruently – as image, as form, as experience, as data, as transmission, all at once.

Saturday, June 2, 12-5 p
904 Sherman Ave.
platform904.com

***

 The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

The Lisa D Show with Maggie Meiners, unedited

Excited to share my first interview with a WOMAN! Know that Maggie Meiners is more than just a woman, she’s a creative powerhouse with skills to get tremendous amounts of things done and a huge heart that enables her to provide mentoring to young creatives coming up the ladder. AND Maggie is a personal friend and cultural collaborator.

In this interview we discuss why Maggie takes the photos she does, specifically the latest installment of her body of work Revisiting Rockwell, a modern day take on the classic American paintings of Norman Rockwell circa 1925, "Freedom of Religion". Pictured below.

We also focus on how Maggie intends to connect the Chicago art scene from the Southside to Witchita, Kansas. Part of her intention is to make Evanston’s art scene stickier for collectors of fine art but also hipper for city folks in Chicago. Her efforts are manifested in Network North’s first gallery hop on Feb. 4 featuring art partners like the Block Museum at Northwestern and Wedge on Howard Ave. and Platform, Maggie’s art event space and studio where she works alongside her talented peer in the arts Justine Bianco.

Visit Maggie’s body of work at www.maggiemeiners.com

Artist Bio

Maggie Meiners (b.1972, Chicago) is an artist and photographer whose work investigates connection with herself, others and the world at large. In 2016, Maggie received Best in Show for Photo Emerge 2016 at Center Gallery-The Midwest Photography Center, Wichita, KS. In 2017 she will be exhibiting her series, Revisiting Rockwell,  at the Butler Institute for American Art and The Garner Center at the New England School of Photography.   

Her work has been widely exhibited and remain in the permanent collections of the Illinois Institute of Art, Wheaton College, Harrison Street Lofts, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Lowey, LLP and an extensive number of private collections. In addition, her work is on loan at the American Embassy in Uruguay through 2019.  

Maggie gives private lessons and critiques, teaches classes, and speaks regularly about her work.  Maggie currently serves on the Board of the Filter Photo Festival, is a member of the Advisory Committee at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and is a member of the photography group, f/8 Collective. Most recently, Maggie moved into a new studio space with the artist, Justine Bianco. Together they run, Platform, a non-commission based exhibition space for artists to show experiential work.

Maggie grew up outside of Chicago and has an affinity for all things Midwestern. She recently moved back to the small town where she grew up with her two sons and her husband, whom she likes to describe as a Renaissance man. She is devoted to lifelong learning and daily picture taking and making.

Maggie's work is represented by Anne Loucks Gallery in Glencoe, IL. 

The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrates creatives. Listen to 20 minute, unedited conversations with host Lisa D. and the creatives who make our world a more connected, interesting and beautiful place to live. Podcasts will be posted on this blog and on Soundcloud.com

This podcast is recorded at 1100 Florence, an art event space in West Evanston, IL, owned and operated by Lisa Degliantoni and Dave Ford. It is a former Polish Grocery store, probably not the BEST place to record a podcast (boomy to say the least) but we're new and it will get better. Reach out to thelisadshow[at]gmail.com