Manneken Press artist Gary Justis‘ exhibition “Heads On Horizon” opened last weekend at Ramp-Arts Gallery in Bloomington. The show includes sculpture, digital prints and videos.
The gallery’s main room contains two kinetic sculpture/installations, Pond and Heads On Horizon, quintessential Justis works, which use mechanics, projected light and sound to distill childhood memories into mesmerizing and poetic visual experiences. The room also includes several of the artist’s videos which loop on an installed monitor. The video’s soundtrack and the mechanical cacophony of the sculptures combine to create a hypnotic effect.
”Three large digital prints, Philsen, Rosetta, and Degge and Mate, hang in the front room of the gallery. These archival pigment prints - portrait-like still images of light projections - capture fleeting presences of otherworldly figures which possess “an unknowable consciousness, an inter-dimensional presence that momentarily disrupts the viewer’s casual expectations with a familiar incompleteness, something we naturally associate with human and/or metaphysical subjects”.
Gary Justis can be heard in conversation with Laura Kennedy of WGLT as they walk through the exhibition. In this illuminating interview, the artist shares insights, the stories behind the works and how they are made. Access the interview at http://wglt.org/post/glt-datebook-childhood-inspiration-still-informs-artist#stream/0
Chandelier monoprints and archival pigment prints by Gary Justis, published by Manneken Press, can be viewed here.
“Heads on Horizon: Sculpture and Images by Gary Justis”, November 3-26
Ramp-Arts Gallery | 300 E Grove Street, Bloomington, IL Hours: Saturdays, 10am-2pm. By appointment: gajustis@gmail.com
