Ben Whitehouse Press Release 2007

CHARLESTON, IL - New approaches to landscape painting are presented in the exhibition titled Ben Whitehouse: Revolution now at the Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University. The exhibition, currently on view, continues through February 24 in the Tarble’s main galleries. Included are paintings on canvas and on panels, and videos of the landscape.

Ben Whitehouse will be at the Tarble Arts Center on Tuesday, February 5, 7pm, to talk about his art. Admission is free and the public is invited. An informal reception will follow the talk. The exhibition and talk are part of the Tarble’s Contemporary Currents series co-sponsored with the EIU Art Department and partially funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Whitehouse has devoted his career exploring ways to evoke an authentic landscape experience through his art. Whitehouse does most of his painting on-site, outdoors -- what artists call plein air study. This tradition dates back to the French Impressionists and has been adopted by many artists since (including 20th century Charleston artist Paul T. Sargent). True to the tradition, Whitehouse has transported himself and his equipment to sites in all weather and all seasons to do his painting.

Since receiving his MFA from the University of Chicago in 1991 Whitehouse has been obsessed with the way form in the landscape emerges and dissolves over time due to changes in light and weather. He often watches the subjects of his paintings for days, observing and recording incremental changes and transitions in the colors and qualities of light. Whitehouse has stated that his work is a reaction to the Impressionists’ art, particularly Claude Monet’s Rouen series, and Whitehouse sees his art as a contemporary extension of their art.

The new series of works developed over the past few years, titled Revolution, Watch, and Horizons, reflect Whitehouse’s growing desire to account for the incremental transitions of light through increasingly complex conceptual practices that expand the subject of landscape painting. Watch is a series of painted works that record sky light shifts observed through the same fixed point in the landscape over time. Horizons has to do with the color of and relationship between light from the sky reflected on bodies of water.

In addition to works composed of individually painted elements that depict changing qualities and colors of light, the Tarble exhibition also includes two 24-hour real-time videos presented on large monitors. The works of Revolution are 24 hours long and are viewed in real time (the time of day the viewer is looking at either video is the same time of day being shown in the video). Whitehouse spends more than 24 hours on location composing each video that unfolds before the viewer with the incremental changes of light and sound.

It may be of interest to note that Whitehouse is the son of a British documentary filmmaker and environmentalist. The generous donation of a high definition camera, speakers and plasma monitors from Panasonic have made it possible for Whitehouse to realize this vision.

Whitehouse is represented in Chicago by the Alfedena Gallery. His work has been exhibited at venues in Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. In addition to the Tarble exhibition Whitehouse’s art is currently on view at the Chicago Cultural Center and at the Los Angeles Art Show.

The Tarble Arts Center is located on 9^th Street at Cleveland Avenue on the EIU campus in Charleston. Open hours are 10am-5pm Tues.-Fri., 10am-4pm Sat., 1-4pm Sun.; closed Mondays and February 15. For information phone 217-581-ARTS (-2787) or email tarble@eiu.edu .

Chicago—In continuation of Ben Whitehouse’s interest in creating artworks that expand the possibilities of marking time and recording transitions via the plein air landscape experience, Whitehouse’s new project – Revolution – is a series of state-of-the-art, 24-hour, single shot high definition digital works that record every movement, shift of light and sound that occurs in the chosen composition for an entire 24-hour period -- one revolution of the earth. These works are then viewed in real time on large scale plasma screens. Three works from the Revolution series, as well as new paintings from the new March, Watch and Horizons series will be on display at Alfedena Gallery, 434 W. Ontario St., Chicago, April 20-June 2, 2007. A reception will be held for the artist on Friday, April 20, 5-8 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

The son of British documentary filmmaker and environmentalist R.C.N. Whitehouse, 44-year-old artist Ben Whitehouse has devoted his career to evoking authentic landscape experiences, with plein air study employed as his central practice. Since receiving his MFA from the University of Chicago in 1991, he has been obsessed with the way form in landscape emerges and dissipates over time, often watching subjects for days, observing changes and transitions. His new series of works, March, Revolution, Watch, Horizons, developed over the past three years, reflect his growing desire to account for these transitions through increasingly complex conceptual practices that expand the subject of landscape painting.

The Revolution series was conceived in December of 2002 as a means of recording the fleeting moments of an entire day through 24 hour seamless digital “paintings.” There are five works in the Revolution series depicting Whitehouse’s observations of landscapes and shorelines in Michigan and central Illinois to urban topographies, such as New York City’s Central Park, viewed from his hotel balcony. Whitehouse spends more than 24 hours on location composing each composition that unfolds before the viewer with the incremental changes of light and sound. State-of-the-art software from Apple, advanced computer technology to store the large digital files required, and a generous donation of a high definition camera, speakers and plasma monitors from Panasonic USA made it possible for Whitehouse to realize his vision. The resulting works are created in limited editions of three. His most recent landscape, North Bar Lake, is currently on view every hour on Panasonic’s Astro Vision screen in Times Square, New York City.

March, from 2004, is a single work composed of thirty-one 11 x 14 inch canvasses that examine and record the subtle and bazaar day to day changes of light and atmosphere that occur in a single space of Lake Michigan, seen from a Chicago neighborhood beach, as weather patterns pass through and atmospheric conditions change. Each plein air canvas was painted from the same location at the same time, 9-11 a.m. each day during the month of March, 2004. The thirty one canvases are exhibited together in a calendar-like block.

The eleven works in the Horizons series are plein air canvasses and panels that focus on the ever changing relationships of sky light and reflected light that occur on Lake Michigan’s horizon. These works were inspired by the sublime qualities of the Mark Rothko paintings Whitehouse saw in the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Sky and water relationships are observed by Whitehouse through a fixed grid and painted directly on site. Each Horizons is comprised of two canvases – the top of which accounts for a particular sky light and the bottom which accounts for that sky light mediated through the water at that moment. The canvasses are cradled so that while they are exhibited parallel to the wall they appear to float in front of the wall as pure natural light.

The five Watch series paintings record the hourly changes of a randomly selected point in the sky viewed through a fixed grid. These observations require Whitehouse to physically endure 24 hours of painting as he creates individual square panels of seemingly abstract color that are in reality highly representational glimpses at the subtle transitions in atmosphere. These slices of time are presented in clock-like arrangements of intimate squares of color. Other works in the Watch series use circular, ring-like panels so that the observed experience of the day/night cycle is presented as a continuous, unbroken shift of light. The panels in the Watch series are attached to wall through magnets, echoing the natural force that controls our relationship to the sun, and therefore, our experience of light.

Revolution North Bar Lake 2006, 720p, 24 hours, 2006, Still frames of high definition digital video presented in real time

Alfedena Gallery, 434 W. Ontario, Chicago, IL 60610, is open Tue. – Fri. 12:00 – 8:00 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, contact John Brunetti, Director, john@alfedenagallery.com, 312.944.4340, or visit www.alfedenagallery.com.

All plasma screens, cameras and speakers used to create Revolution generously provided by Panasonic USA.

Tarble Arts Center Shows Ben Whitehouse, 1/12/08 - 2/24/08