Shaman in the Loop – New Exhibition from Chalet Comellas opens August 24, 2023
Space 204 will open the 2023-2024 academic exhibition year with an exhibition from Nashville-based artist Chalet Comellas and collaborator Clint Sleeper. Shaman in the Loop will be on view from August 24 to September 21, 2023 with an artist reception on August 31, 2023 from 3pm to 5pm.
Shaman in the Loop will feature a multi-discplinary work derived through computational abstraction and addresses spirituality and ritual alongside technology.
Comellas writes “…all the works in this exhibition; paintings, drawings, video, and sound, are mediated through a range of auto-generated processes. Chance, randomness, and indeterminate marks are inserted into the creation of each piece to challenge the promise and the usefulness of Artificial Intelligence in our daily lives, especially when intertwined with notions of self-care. The tension within these works lies within the the absence of human intervention and asks us to reflect on the body, healing rituals, and the various extensions of technology across a range of contemporary spiritual practices.”
About the artist/collaborator:
Chalet Comellas is an interdisciplinary artist who employs expanded forms of painting, sculpture, video, sound, and digital media to engage viewers visually and sonically.
She was born in Tampa, Florida and lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee. Her studio practice reflects a personal connection to the complex histories surrounding the Latin Diaspora and through experimental time-based frameworks, and the use of audio-visual archives, she illuminates the interplay between materiality, spirituality, and technology. Comellas holds an BFA in Studio Art from the University of Tampa and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Florida State University. She has taught lecture-based critical writing courses focused on contemporary art and the environment along with studio arts classes focused on time-based media. Comellas is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies including, top prize in the Digital Media Category at ArtFields 2018. She was a Visiting Artist-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University in 2020, and as an Assistant Professor at Florida State University, she was awarded as Faculty in Residence at the Facility for Arts Research, along with receiving several grants. Her artwork is in public and private collections including, Soho House Nashville, Nashville, TN; Vanderbilt University Library, Nashville TN; and Colorado College Special Collections Library, Colorado Springs, CO, and the City of Tampa Public Art Collection, Tampa, FL. Selected press includes BURNAWAY, Tampa Bay Times, Orlando Sentinel, Style Weekly, Art Spiel, Nashville Scene, and Number Inc. Magazine.
Clint Sleeper is a media artist, performer, and curator, whose research weaves through various topics concerning technology, overt activist positions, popular philosophy, and dark humor. He investigates the various ways that these topics overlap for us as we move through everyday life navigating complex political crises through clumsy interfaces, problematic devices, and faulty systems. Sleeper is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at Florida State University where he teaches classes in digital media that consider the implications of new technologies. He received his BA in Studio Art from the University of Nevada Reno and his MFA in Contemporary Art from Simon Fraser University.
Comellas and Sleeper currently co-run Unrequited Leisure, a media focused curatorial project space they founded in Nashville, January of 2019. Artists selected for solo and group exhibitions at UL explore screen-based approaches to critical and topical investigations through video, code, and net-based art.
Exhibition Details:
Title: Shaman in the Loop
Artist(s): Chalet Comellas; Clint Sleeper (collaborator)
Dates: August 24 – September 21, 2023
Reception: August 31, 2023; 3PM to 5PM
Contact: artdept@vanderbilt.edu