White Noise
3 May – 3 July, 2007

Exhibition

Opening Reception, Thursday May 3rd, 6-8pm

Spencer Brownstone Gallery is delighted to announce the opening of 'White Noise', a major new installation by Zilvinas Kempinas.
The artist's third solo show at the gallery (following the critically acclaimed 'Flying Tape', 2004 and 'Columns/Bike Messenger', 2006), 'White Noise' represents a monumental new development of Kempinas' series of sculptural installations employing his signature medium of unspooled video tape.
Upon entering the darkened gallery space, viewers are confronted with a large screen of 'white noise' on the gallery's end wall. The screen vibrates with the fragmented black and white pixels we associate with an untuned video source, and a low hum and flickering sound reinforce the connotation. As we move forward, the screen takes on more and more the character of a dazzling optical effect and disorienting immersive environment.
Even as we near its surface (and gradually become aware that the screen is, in fact, an opening in the wall stretched with horizontal lines of videotape vibrating rapidly in the currents of air created by a series of fans), the piece continues to mesmerize and confound, a remarkable visual experience that is quite literally redundant to describe in words.
Recalling at once the sublime minimalism of Robert Irwin and Joseph Kosuth's tautological games, 'White Noise' poses a transfixing visual conundrum with a deft metaphorical play on tape as both physical object and container of information.

Artist Bio

Zilvinas Kempinas was born in Lithuania in 1969 and has been living and working in New York since completing his MFA at Hunter College in 2002. The past year has seen a phenomenal interest in the artist's work, since his entire January 2006 show at Spencer Brownstone Gallery was purchased for the Margulies Collection, Miami. Standout shows at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and Art Basel Miami Beach have quickly followed and in March, the artist was highlighted by Art Review Magazine as one of its 'Future Greats: 25 Artists You Need to Know'. Zilvinas is currently preparing for two major solo museum exhibitions: at the Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania in June, and Kunsthalle, Vienna in 2008, and will be Artist In Residence at the prestigious Atelier Calder, Saché, France from January-June 2008.