An exhibition of recent drawings and videos by artist Leah Beeferman, who is based in Brooklyn, NY, will be on view at Mary Baldwin University’s Hunt Gallery from January 16 to February 3, 2012. Beeferman was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she received a BA from Brown University in 2004, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth
University in 2010. Her work has been exhibited widely, at venues including Nicole
Klagsbrun Gallery and Invisible Exports in New York City; the Queens
Museum of Art; the Options 2009 Biennial in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland; and Space 1026 in Philadelphia. She was a 2010–11 resident at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Residency.
Beeferman’s research-driven drawings, animations, sound work, and installations interpret information broadly. About her recent work, she said, “My drawings, digital prints, and animations create a space in between the scientific representation of data and my interpretation of it. The result is ambiguous: suggestive of information, but providing no specifics, no resolution. The drawings themselves are dense, bringing movement and intensity to the schematic principles and diagrams that inspire them. In the prints and animations, I pair certain drawings with found scientific imagery, confusing the idea of an informative discovery with an inventive one. I am charting explorations into what I call graph space — a diagrammatic universe of scientific charts, modeled geometric shapes, and data plots, full of information but seemingly lacking in feeling. To me, however, they are emotive records of a series of events: tiny or huge changes in measurement which appear as subtle or substantial visual shifts. These shifts tell a particular kind of ‘story’ to be revealed, transforming the systematic display of measurement into something uncertain and psychological. My process is intellectual and interpretive. I start with textual and visual research about the universe, laws of physics, and idealized geometry. Based on what I find, I use imagemaking, animation, and sound to explore this space, locating these events and inventing the abstract narratives that play out within.”
There will be an opening reception in Hunt Gallery on Monday, January 16, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., although the artist will not be present. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the college’s academic year.