Guest Lecture: Siebren Versteeg October 23rd
Press Release
9/09/2012
The University of Maine Intermedia MFA program is pleased to announce the third lecture, Siebren Versteeg, for their fall 2012 Visiting Artist series. This presentation is in part sponsored by the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture as part of a new partnership program with the Intermedia MFA Program. Versteeg will present a public lecture on Tuesday October 23rd at 7pm in 100 Lord Hall on the University of Maine campus in Orono.
New York based multimedia artist Siebren Versteeg uses dislocation, juxtaposition, and/or hacking of the familiar, ever-increasing flow of digital images found in cyberspace. He writes computer programs that pull imagery from the Internet based upon subjects or criteria that he specifies. The images then appear on monitors within the gallery space. Although Versteeg determines the types of things that might appear on the monitors, the artwork—like the Internet it draws from—is constantly growing and changing. This tension between creative control and the endless stream of images is of particular interest to the artist.
Siebren Versteeg was born in 1971 in New Haven, Connecticut. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and the School of Visual Arts, New York. His work has been widely exhibited around the world with exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Max Protetch Gallery, New York; Bellwether Gallery, New York; Ten in One Gallery, New York; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; and 1R Gallery, Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; Krannert Art Museum, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; the National Museum of Art, Czech Republic; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
The Masters of Fine Arts in Intermedia at the University of Maine provides substantial advanced study for individuals interested in interdisciplinary study in the arts. The program emphasizes intensive development of students’ creative and innovative abilities through a diverse engagement with multiple research processes, critical thinking skills and creative production tools and technologies. The visiting artist series supports and reflects the wide variety of disciplines represented by the program including but not limited to, Art, New Media, Theater, Dance, Philosophy, Art History, Engineering, Communications, Media Studies, Music, Psychology, Natural Sciences, and others.
For more information about the artist go to http://www.siebrenversteeg.com
This event is sponsored by the Intermedia MFA Program, the New Media Department, The Cultural Affairs / Distinguished Lecture Series Fund and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
For more information contact Bethany Engstrom at bethany.engstrom@umit.maine.edu
