Press Release
Retrospective is pleased to present Surface Support (It's All Black and White), an exhibition of works by Dean Levin. This exhibition expands on Levin's interest in standard systems of measurement, blueprints; and the issues inherent to computational structures. Using the grid, the structure that throughout modernity has been emblematic of artificial certainty, Surface Support questions our reliance on systems of measurement and codification innate to the digital world.
Levin's grids are hand-drawn, scanned into a computer, and printed with UV ink on mirror-polished stainless steel. This transfer produces subtle distortions in the computer's attempt to render the grid in geometrical perfection. The inclusion of these particular distortions are representative of the computer's all-embracing nature; revealing the tensions between its function as a mechanism for resolution and its inclusion of all man-made imperfections.
The initial drawing thus maps the space of artistic gesture as it is continually absorbed by structures that transform it. On the mirrored ground, the final instrument of absorption, the grid simultaneously projects itself on the environment it reflects. Levin's grids serve as a provocation of the past and a speculation to the future.
Levin's exhibition opens in conjunction with a group show at Hudson Basilica from 7-9pm with musical performances beginning at 9pm