Michael Wyshock: Caustic Optics
august 25 - september 22, 2023
Crossley Gallery

Caustic Optics is an exhibition by Michael Wyshock consisting of eleven paintings made with a free hand format of polygonal abstraction.  In these artworks the edges and corners are aligned to merge and split groups of shapes. The organization of the composition references a range of caustic optics from the profound presence in nature to the everyday use in digital screens.

Attempts are made with each surface to continually combine, separate, squeeze, fold and bend the shapes into potential patterns, similar to ones that can also be found in light refractions through water, supernumerary rainbows, and computer graphics.  The artificiality of the paint contributes to the process in clinical aspects of regularity, to see what flows and transfers or  what collides and shatters, and if these could be new categories to think about how light can move to describe a surface.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Michael Wyshock is a multimedia contemporary artist. His current research interests concern the spatial implications of multi-dimensional color and phenomenological systems. Wyshock uses fractal studies--found in painting, sound, and video--for the investigation of patterns that produce predictable saccades. The concern is with the visual engagement of the viewer with issues of depth and oscillation. The works are designed and amplified for chronostatic effects that explore the psychology of time. The artist’s creative involvements include a range of collaborative studio and public projects with other artists and practitioners--musicians, poets, and scientists. Wyshock’s projects and art work have received awards and support from numerous public and private sponsors--the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Ringling Tower award, fellowship of the Vermont Studio Center, the Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Award, Louisiana Arts Council Award, University of Central Arkansas Research Award, State University of New York Research Award, and the Florida State University Distinguished Alumni Award. Since 2010, he has been teaching in the Fine Arts Department at Ringling College of Art and Design.