THE ARMORY SHOW 
March 7-10, Pier 94, New York, NY

Focus USA ::::: LINCOLN SCHATZ: The Network ::::: booth 902

CONNERSMITH. is very pleased to present a solo exhibition of Lincoln Schatz’s The Network at The Armory Show 2013, FOCUS USA, curated by Eric Shiner. Innovative and uniquely American, The Network presents a composite portrait of power and innovation in Washington, DC through generative digital art and photographs.

Using three video cameras, Schatz recorded his interviews with 89 policy makers and cultural operatives to create a ever-changing digital conversation. Drawing inspiration from Richard Avedon’s political portrait photographs, Schatz updates an art historical continuum that began with Raphael’s sixteenth-century painting of Baldassare Castiglione as an eloquent embodiment of the Urbino court. Schatz blends artistry with technology, surpassing the Renaissance ideal of portraiture as a “speaking likeness” by giving full expression to the individual stories of his high profile sitters, who include Steve Case, Vernon Jordon, Rocco Landesman, Sandra Day O’Connor, Nancy Pelosi, John Podesta, and Eric Cantor.

After translating the raw video footage into analog format, the artist wrote digital code that accesses meta-tagged topics in all 89 interviews so as to present constantly changing sequences of sitters and concepts. Transitioning seamlessly from one speaker to another, the work continually generates a provocative nexus of contemporary ideas. In the gallery installation, Schatz brings the original context of these performative conversations to life, creating an immersive experience for his audience, whose personal perspectives will generate new relational meanings of the art. 

The Network is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

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Armory Film ::::: JANET BIGGS screening: "Fade to White" with NYC premier of "A Step on the Sun" ::::: Sunday, March 10th, 5-6:30pm

These two films by Janet Biggs were shot in near opposite, yet equally inhospitable, locations: the frozen wasteland of the Arctic Circle and the hellish sulfur mine deep inside an active volcano in Indonesia. Fade to White was shot while Biggs was traveling aboard an ice-class, 2-masted schooner, built in 1910, and focuses on a crew member as he navigated the ship through iceberg -filled seas, and paddled a kayak past glacier walls and polar bears. In A Step On the Sun, the artist focuses on hardships overcome by a sulfur miner in the Ijen volcano. Amid clouds of toxic sulfur dioxide gas, he carries heavy loads up a steep, rocky path from the crater floor to the rim, then to a distant weigh-station. curated by Moving-Image.

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For further information: 202 588 8750 / info@connersmith.us.com.