Smarter/Faster/Higher 

Elizabeth Keithline in Collaboration with Jeff Keithline

May 4 – June 5, 2011

 A Tool is a Mirror

Curated by Elizabeth Keithline

May 8 – June 5, 2011

  The Danforth Museum of Art is pleased to present two unique shows featuring the work of Rhode Island sculptor Elizabeth Keithline as part of the 2011 Boston Cyberarts Festival.  Smarter/Faster/Higher is an installation of mixed media sculpture Keithline created in collaboration with her husband Jeff.  A Tool is a Mirror is a group show curated by Keithline in which artists respond to computer keyboards and screens as a reflection of the artistic hand and eye. Both exhibitions explore concepts of technology as a tool of human evolution 


Elizabeth Keithline will speak about her work on Sunday, May 8th at 3pm with an opening reception immediately following. Talks are free for Museum members, or with paid admission.  All are welcome to attend.

   

About the Smarter, Faster, Higher:  Technology and nature work together to promote human evolution, making us become Smarter, Faster, and Higher. In a mixed media installation, full-scale human figures are frozen at various levels of motion: some crawl, walk, and run through the gallery, while others converge upon a central pool of monitors.  Technology provides an opportunity for self-reflection and self-absorption—an advantage as well as an obstacle to human understanding.


“Simply by opening a laptop we create the potential to increase our mental capacity,” Keithline observes.  Yet, however distanced humans become from their roots in the natural world, “technology mirrors nature.”


Keithline’s sculptures are unique, stemming from a process she has developed over two decades called the “lost box” technique.  In collaboration with her husband Jeff, Keithline builds wooden armatures which she then wraps/weaves with heavy-gauge wire to create intricate mesh forms. These woven mesh forms are then cut from their armature and reshaped, retaining the intrinsic ‘memory’ of the lost object.


About A Tool is a Mirror:  Keithline developed A Tool As Mirror for the Boston Cyberarts Festival as a complimentary group show to Smarter/Faster/Higher.  Featuring work by Aerostatic, Sheila Gallagher, Dennis Hlynsky, Brian Kane, Duncan Laurie, Rupert Nesbitt, and Erik Sanner, A Tool As Mirror is on view at Mobius Gallery, 725 Harrison Avenue, Boston from April 22 – May 8, 2011, before traveling to the Danforth Museum of Art from May 8 through June 5, 2011.  For more info about these and other shows on view in the Boston Cyberarts Festival, visit http://bostoncyberarts.org/festival/.


About the Artist:

Elizabeth Keithline received a B.S. in Communications from Emerson College and has studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Saunderstown Weaving School.  Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO; the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, MI; and the  Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI. She has appeared in group exhibitions at the Incubator Gallery, Umass Amherst, Amherst, MA; 5C Cultural Center, New York University, New York, NY; the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; the Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT; and the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX.  Reviews of her work have appeared in GO Magazine, Art New England, the New York Times, and the Providence Journal.  Keithline’s curatorial credits include A Tool is a Mirror at Incubator Gallery, Umass Amherst, Amherst, MA and Mobius Gallery, Boston, MA; The Shadow Show at Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, and Ourchitecture at the Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI.

 

Danforth Museum of Art:  The Danforth Museum of Art was established in 1975 when a group of community activists organized what remains the only fine art museum in the MetroWest.  Named Outstanding Cultural Organization for 2008 by the Massachusetts Education Collaborative, and Director of Education Pat Walker twice named Museum Educator of the Year for the state of Massachusetts. The Danforth Museum of Art maintains a collection of over 3,500 works of American Art, with a special focus on painterly expressionism.  Museum Director Katherine French has received numerous awards for curatorial excellence—first from the International Association of Art Critics for work on the exhibition Joan Snyder, A Painting Survey, 1969-2005 and more recently from the Journal of Aesthetic Research at the 2009 Boston Art Awards for her numerous exhibitions exploring Boston Expressionism. The Danforth Museum of Art is pleased to present exhibitions and educational programming that connect people to our Museum mission, which is the celebration and creation of art.

 

General Information

For general information on the Danforth Museum of Art, visit http://www.danforthmuseum.org or call 508 620-0050. The Danforth Museum of Art is located at 123 Union Avenue, Framingham, Massachusetts. Museum hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm. Friday and Saturday 10 am to 5 pm. Amission is $11.00 for adults, $9.00 for senior citizens, $8 for students, and free for children under 17 and Danforth members.