matt shlian update

I'm super busy setting up 2 shows opening this Friday! - First, A two person show at the Ann Arbor Art center and a group show at the Gallery project right around the corner.

Some pictures:

My work was included in a group show at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. The show dealt with architecture and structure in contemporary craft.

click to enlarge a panoramic photo of the work:



Its time to get familiar with my favorite artist, MFA candidate and sole member of the University of Michigan's polar research team Thea Eck. Her big big show "It is Never Tomorrow" is coming up in March and it is going to blow minds. Show details are on the final image in the series.

theaeck.com

show images will be posted soon

i promise

matt

Peter Callesen

dear everyone I know,

Please stop forwarding me Peter Callesen's paper cuts.

Yes, they are great. No, I won't make my work more like them.

the book is officially in limbo

we are so sorry. Now we will just have to wait for phaidon to come to us.

on the plus side the album is almost mastered.

new artist statement

New artist statement / teaching philosophy (if you like reading those sorts of things) now posted at http://www.mattshlian.com/statement.html

or just keep reading below...

matt

Statement

As a paper engineer my work is rooted in print media, book arts and commercial design. Beginning with an initial fold, a single action causes a transfer of energy to subsequent folds, which ultimately manifest in drawings and three dimensional forms. I use my engineering skills to create kinetic sculpture which have lead to collaborations with scientists at the University of Michigan. We work on the nanoscale, translating paper structures to micro origami. Our investigations extend to visualizing cellular division and solar cell development. Researchers see paper engineering as a metaphor for scientific principals; I see their inquiry as basis for artistic inspiration. In my studio I am a collaborator, explorer and inventor. I begin with a system of folding and at a particular moment the material takes over. Guided by wonder, my work is made because I cannot visualize its final realization; in this way I come to understanding through curiosity.


The root cause of Alzheimer’s disease is protein mis-folding. The modular arrangements in which protein strands are formed, break down and incorrectly fold. This causes a chain reaction of erroneous folding. My approach to understanding this is hands on; the microscopic folds can be mapped on a human scale out of paper and used as a basis for sculpture. Expanding and contracting in response to the viewer’s physical participation, new questions are raised; how can this form generate movement? How can size relate to the body? What happens when molecular forms become life-size and inhale the surrounding space?


My drawings begin by asking indirect questions which yield no concrete answers. As with my three dimensional work, my focus is on the process rather than final product. I am fascinated with computer technology and its ability to mistranslate information. Like a game of “telephone”, multiple software programs fracture and compound text and image as they travel through different formats on the computer. Bearing little resemblance to their origin, the new information is rendered on a pen plotter creating a chaotic world rooted in happenstance. No longer legible, I see the drawings as blueprints for invisible cities, answers to questions that may unfold over time.


Teaching Philosophy

MIT professor, Victor Weisskopf, wrote in an essay entitled Teaching Science that, "In science we must always begin by asking questions, not giving answers. In this way we contribute to the joy of insight. For science is the opposite of knowledge. Science is curiosity."


I teach my students that curiosity is the root of art making practice, and the investigations they undertake in their formative studies while learning basic principals of art and design can be pursued across media and disciplines. The key to making their ideas accessible and successful is through rigorous research, design, execution and critique. I show students how limitations are necessary in producing artwork and force them to work within boundaries. In three-dimensional design we begin our year exploring common materials and discovering inherent properties therein. How can they transform the material, creating a dialogue with it rather than imposing a form upon it? They reflect and respond in written form and through critique become active participants in their learning. Establishing an atmosphere where questions are encouraged and collaboration is paramount, I find remarkable results occur when different approaches are allowed to collide. My students become problem solvers as they work through projects, realizing that the process is just as important as the final product.

book on hold

We had some issues with the publisher and the book is being pushed back until January / February of next year...here are some sample pages:

New Book

6 x 9 in.
54 page full color perfect bound
Limited Edition of 100

GHOST TOWN
the art of Matthew Shlian


Will be available end of December.

Matt

more S + L images

click photos to enlarge


Front page Michigan Daily


First page of the art section


Benjamin Teague - Plate Work


Thea Eck - Mining the Field Series


Tom DeLooza - Geo/Ethnocentrism


Michelle Word - Diaphanous, Confluence, Inchoate


Nicole Marroquin - Meiosis Squash Demonstrate the Imaginary World Inside My Breasts When I was Pregnant With a Female Child: The Future Is Now.


Patricia Olynyk - Touch


Teresa Petersen - Fission and Fusion


Jada Schumacher, Design Orange - haze chandelier


Jen Stark - Papermation


Kristin Kurzawa - Specimen


Heather Lowe - Demurable, Cumulus , Ameliorant


Anne Mondro - Sarcinae de Corpus 02.48


Richard Nelipovich - Emergent Tableware


Richard Nelipovich - Emergent Tableware (detail)


Dennis Hayes IV - Log-o installation #1 (detail)


Dennis Hayes IV - Log-o installation #1 (detail)


HEIDI KUMAO - “Time to Make a Decision” from the series, “Saving Time” & Personalized “egg timers”: My Minute, Your Minute, time to Change My Mind, Time between Panic Attacks, Untitled. All from the series, “Saving Time”


George Hrycun - Evanescence


Vojtěch Kubašta - The Tournament


Michael Flynn, FunExhibits.com - Title: Magnetoscope


George W. Hart - Eights


John Chwekun - Untitled


John Chwekun - Untitled (view 2)


C.J. Minard - Napoleon's March to Moscow

S + L opening pictures!

Last night the Studio and the Lab show opened at the WORK gallery.
The turn out was unbelievable- check out some photos below.


click on photos to enlarge


Dennis Hayes scales a wall to take an overhead picture of the opening


Onlookers swarm Michael Flynn's "Magnetoscope". C.J. Minard's Map - "Napoleon's March to Moscow", "Geo/Ethnocentrism" photo by Tom DeLooza, and Nicole Marroquin's - "Meiosis Squash Demonstrate the Imaginary World Inside My Breasts When I was Pregnant With a Female Child: The Future Is Now" pictured behind.


Designer/Craftsman Richard Nelipovich (pretends to) listen as Matthew Shlian explains his theory that the moon is getting closer to the earth. Michael Paradise is lulled to sleep in foreground.


George Hart shows his polyhedral mastery in the gallery window.


Viewers are drawn to Dennis Hayes IV's "Log-o" installation at the front of the gallery.


A close up of IV's piece.


Jason Keenan inspects a Kubasta Pop-up book.


Jason Keenan works the "magnetoscope".


Matthew Shlian and Thea Eck

Thank you to all the artists participating in the show! If you have more pictures from the opening send them to me!! More photos will be posted soon.

Matthew Shlian

s + l opening

Friends,

The Studio and the Lab show is gearing up for its opening this Friday
September 7th at the WORK gallery from 6-9pm. If you are in the Ann
Arbor area stop by and check out the work from various Artists,
Scientists and Engineers.

Looking at the intersection of Art and Science, we have ferro-fluid,
algorithmic based flatware, electron microscopy, remnants from the
northwest passage, maps from the 1800's, an original Kubasta pop up
book, systematic drawing, polyhedral models, synthetic hair and super
glue construction and more!

Hope to see you Friday night.

Matthew Shlian

The show will remain open Sept 7 - Oct 5th
WORK gallery 306 S. State street
Ann Arbor, MI
University of Michigan School of Art and Design