The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Devorah Sperber: Threads of Perception October 30, 2009– January 24, 2010. The New York artist puts a new spin on the history of Western art, using digital technology to recreate and reinterpret familiar masterpieces.
Interested in the links between art, science, and technology through the ages, Devorah Sperber deconstructs familiar images to address the way the brain processes visual information versus the way we think we see. “As a visual artist,” she says, “I cannot think of a topic more stimulating and yet so basic than the act of seeing—how the human brain makes sense of the visual world.”
Sperber’s work is based on the technology of mechanical reproduction and how it alters images and the scale of artworks as they exist in “the mind’s eye.” Using ordinary spools of thread, she creates pixilated, inverted images of well-known masterpieces including famous paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci and Jan Van Eyck, which appear as colorful abstractions to the naked eye. When viewed through optical devices, however, the works becomes immediately recognizable.
Sperber has exhibited extensively at museums and galleries around the world, and is represented in a number of private and public collections in the United States. To see more of her work go to www.devorahsperber.com.
A members-only exhibition preview party and opportunity to meet the artist takes place Thursday, October 29 at 5:30–7:30pm. Additionally, the public is invited to a lecture by Sperber will be held at the University of Tennessee Wednesday, October 28 at 7pm in the Art & Architecture building in room 109. Sponsors for this exhibition include the University of Tennessee Visual Arts Committee. Media sponsors include AT&T Real Yellow Pages, digital media graphix, Method Bureau, and WBIR.