Michelle Ceja
November 12 – 15, 2011
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““Virtuality is not about living in an immaterial realm of information, but about the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns.”” – N. Katherine Hayles, The Condition of Virtuality
Klaus von Nichtssagend is pleased to present new work by Michelle Ceja as the inaugural exhibition of the klausgallery.net series. The show will be viewable online at klausgallery.net from November 2 – 14. Please join us at a reception for the artist at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery on Friday November 4 from 6:30 – 8 PM and view an installation by Michelle Ceja in conjunction with her online work.
Michelle Ceja’s work is composed of online media, physical installations, and printed work. Common to these is the vocabulary of digital manipulation, including the image transformations and layering techniques native to software such as Adobe Photoshop, which establishes a common gestural approach between disparate media. The consistency of these techniques can impart a perceived physicality to the elements in her digital assemblages, and a perceived malleability to the physical objects used in her installations. One might consider this substituting of “natural properties” of one medium for another to engage satirically with the aesthetic concept known as medium specificity. Ceja’s usage of the inventory of software techniques seems to present the idea that the plasticity of digital technology belies an essential void–that the screen which may reproduce any image lacks an innate image of its own. It is with this property of the screen’s vacuum that she articulates a uniquely personal aesthetic of virtuality.
Michelle Ceja lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has most recently shown at Bitforms Gallery in New York, Important Projects in San Francisco, and Preteen Gallery in Mexico City. An active member in the Rhizome.org community, she has participated in several online exhibition projects including Caitlin Denny and Parker Ito’s jstchillin.org andmybiennialisbetterthanyours.com.