The Colorado Photographic Arts Center, located at 1513 Boulder
Street in Denver Highlands neighborhood just on the edge of downtown,
will open the three-person exhibition "Constructing Images
Post-Photography" this evening, Thursday April 18th, with a
reception from 6-8pm. Curated by Conor King, "Post
Photography" is an exciting exhibition that explores how artists,
through a variety of mediums, use and are influenced by photography.
The premise is solid and forward thinking: in a time when
photography so saturates both the art market and all aspects of the
world we live in, it becomes difficult to distinguish the difference
between what is and is not influenced by the medium. The exhibition
features works by Libby Barbee, Anthony Baab and Plus Gallery's own
Milton Croissant III.
Croissant's work is an exceptional case in point. When his
"House Party 6" series was first introduced at Plus Gallery
in last summer's group exhibition "Mirage," most everyone
had to do a double-take when confronted by his impressive, large-scale
images. Some swore they were paintings, others
photographs....few initially understood that they were digital
compositions of uncanny and almost pristine detail. The images depict
the aftermath of what seems like a rather unconventional party, one
where kids perhaps tripped out on electronics, paint-ball and movies,
over soda pop and possibly cake (one with a basketball seemingly
embedded prior to being eaten). Full of mystery and exuding some of
the most sensitive surface qualities possible in the medium,
Croissant's "House Party 6" series was one of the most
outstanding discoveries of the year, by an artist known quite well in
Denver's underground art-scene but new to the more mature contemporary
market in which his latest developments so deserve to reside.
This year the CPAC continues the forward momentum for Croissant and his work, taking off from Denver Digerati's inspired recent commissions featuring Croissants superior talent in motion-based art, and overlapping their nightly screenings at the now-revered "Monkey Town 4" project taking place in the River North Arts District through June 1st. The Arvada Center picks up the ball next, injecting their space with a handful of some of Colorado's most advanced and thrilling new-media artists this summer in an exhibition that will extrapolate on all previous efforts exponentially. We are thrilled to see the appreciation that is continuing to build for an artist who only three years prior was noted as "One of the top artists under 35 years old" by then Denver Post art critic Kyle MacMillan, alongside the likes of Plus Gallery artist Xi Zhang and Denver Digerati commissioned artist Justin Beard.
Milton Croissant III has this to say about the body of work on
view at CPAC:
"The adolescent Id played out in a modernist home:
pre-dusk snapshots. The youths are gone or dead. Fan Fiction for the
never-to-be-made movie in the "House Party" legacy movie
series."
Much of my recent work deals with the embedded narratives within real or imagined architectural spaces. I create these spaces using opensource, 3D modeling software. The working environment of 3D software enables me to control all visual aspects of a scene in a nearly infinitely scalable world to simulate an imagined scenario. These features make my work very similar to photography: the only required components are light and a camera. However in this work I have complete control over appearance, material, and even physics. This artifice of control allows me to play in the uncanny valley, the hinterland between fiction and concrete reality.
Much of my recent work deals with the embedded narratives within real or imagined architectural spaces. I create these spaces using opensource, 3D modeling software. The working environment of 3D software enables me to control all visual aspects of a scene in a nearly infinitely scalable world to simulate an imagined scenario. These features make my work very similar to photography: the only required components are light and a camera. However in this work I have complete control over appearance, material, and even physics. This artifice of control allows me to play in the uncanny valley, the hinterland between fiction and concrete reality.
The scenes that unfold in the "House Party 6" series
take place within a single home - one that is fashioned after the
aesthetics of teen party movies made in the 1980's and early 90's.
Each room is laid waste by the churning id of youth, but the kids are
all gone. What remains is the silent, detached gaze of a television or
computer monitor. The screens emit a Hopper-esque light, highlighting
the paradoxical loneliness of modernity.
Croissant is currently based in Baltimore, but his connection and appreciation for his hometown of Denver is everlasting. Please join us this evening in celebrating the work of a fascinating young artist firmly on the rise.
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