Reese Inman
Drawing from her background in film history, painting, and computer programming, Reese Inman unites art and technology by using a computer to determine the underlying structure of her paintings. She programs a vast algorithm, or set of instructions, into her computer, which then selects from a set of colors and randomly generates a pattern of colored dots, wherein the dot is the basic unit, like a pixel. With a printout of the computer-generated code Inman painstakingly colors in each dot with layers of paint, like a paint-by-numbers system. The resulting images refer to the grid and visually reference computers, microchips, mapping, remote sensing, static, data and sound streams, and textiles. Inman states, “The underlying structure of the grid reflects the ordered layout of LED displays, monitors and projectors, and the circuit boards that control them.” Like the well-known conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, Inman follows an instruction set to simultaneously create a complex visual pattern in her paintings and to question the relationship between technology and creativity in contemporary society.
Reese Inman resides in Boston, MA
Image: Reese Inman, Stringlattice II, 2006, acrylic on panel, 39 ½” x 39 ½”, Lent by the Artist, Courtesy Gallery NAGA , Boston , MA
