PW EMERGING ARTIST SERIES: Digital Epoch
EXHIBITION: Digital Epoch // New Works by Aidan O’Keeffe (Ottawa, CA)
DATES: Friday September 21 to Wednesday October 17, 2018 (extended due to power outage/weather conditions on opening weekend)
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday October 3, 2018, 6-9 PM (rescheduled from September 21 due to power outage/weather conditions on opening weekend), free admission, welcome to all
CURATED BY: Laura Pollard and Melanie Yugo
EDITIONS: Limited editions of the the artist’s digital works will be available for purchase.
SHOW DESCRIPTION
Possible Worlds is pleased to present our first exhibition of this fall season, part of a series highlighting Ottawa-Gatineau based emerging graphic artists.
In Digital Epoch, the first solo show of his work, emerging artist Aidan O’Keeffe reflects on the spectrum of experiences we have with technology and the internet. Through his digital body of colourful and abstract artwork, O’Keeffe's pieces grapple with a society that praises technology even while it causes us to feel anxious and alone in our daily lives.
Using his computer, a tablet and readily-available software or apps as his canvas, and a mouse, stylus or fingertip as his brush, O’Keeffe moves back and forth between carefully applied digital lines and shapes to more gestural strokes in the style of action painting to experiments with colour gradients. In doing so, O’Keeffe tries to express the contemporary paradox of feeling lonely and interconnected at the same time, drawing from his own emotions, as well as the interactions with and experiences of technology that both he and others have had.
Throughout his own life O’Keeffe has struggled with technology addiction, often finding it hard to find a balance between usefulness and excess, and his participation in “digital life” and “real life.”
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Aidan O'Keeffe (b. 1997) is an Ottawa-based, self-taught artist creating digital art, paintings and mixed media works. He is currently completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa. He finds inspiration in graphic design, the city, and the wide range of human emotions we all encounter in our own journeys. In his work, he translates his and others’ experiences with contemporary life into abstracted images, driven by his interest in the ways lines, shapes, and colour interact.