Featured image: Le Corbusier, Femme Unicorne et Taureau Noir
Philip Vaughan, Hachi Ni 
Mike Saijo, Ashikaga DNA 
GK Austin II, Stone Series #1
Where: https://zoom.us/j/7529564029
Online discussion: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 pm (PST) / 4:00 – 5:00 pm (EST)
Conversation RSVP link: https://bgpresentsstraightedge.gr8.com/
Exhibition: October 27 – November 27, 2020, online at https://artsy.net/bg-gallery
bG Gallery is pleased to announce The Straight Edge: Math, Science and Art, a live, virtual conversation between consultants Christina Warner and Alex Guajardo, who will deconstruct the role mathematics, technology, and science plays in the arts.
One can draw several conclusions by exploring art historical developments in tandem with those of math and science, most significantly: art, science, and math are one, their histories inextricable.
In 1415 Florentine architect and painter Filippo Brunelleschi developed linear perspective, a system by which figures and elements depicted on a two-dimensional plane projected the illusion of depth by using “vanishing points.” The first mechanical schematics and descriptions of a camera obscura–a mechanism used to reproduce the natural world by projecting its image onto any surface of the artist’s choosing–were made in the early 1500s by painter, sculptor, engineer, scientist, anatomist, and naturalist-extraordinaire Leonardo Da Vinci. Nearly simultaneously, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo were using a mathematical principle in their work called the golden ratio of proportion, also known as the divine ratio, which, when employed, creates a preternaturally aesthetically pleasing image.
Modern and contemporary artists have embraced these techniques to comment on the rapidly evolving world around them. Scientific and mathematical advancements, which once took centuries to develop, are achieved in mere years, and artists continue to grow their practices, bodies, and media just as quickly. Reflecting on various communities’ racial disparities, Linda Vallejo bases her Brown Dot Project on statistical data, while digital artist GK Austin II creates uncannily lifelike depictions of waves and flora using mathematical properties of fractals, as sculptor Philip Vaughan choreographs kinetic sculptures that use light as their medium by manipulating the contrast between neon lights’ brightness and darkness.
Artists include G.K. Austin, Ivan Butorac, Peter Carr, Le Corbusier, Yaron Dotan, Robert Indiana, Flora Kao, Matjames Metson, Mike Saijo, Linda Vallejo, and Philip Vaughan with sound art by Brandt Brauer Frick.
