Fwd: Connie Samaras - V.A.L.I.S at de Soto Gallery

Begin forwarded message:
> CONNIE SAMARAS - V.A.L.I.S. (vast active living intelligence system)
> photographs and video of Antarctica
>
> October 6 - November 3, 2007
>
> Artist reception: Saturday, October 13, 6 - 9 pm
>
>
>
> De Soto Gallery is pleased to present Connie Samaras' V.A.L.I.S
> (vast active living intelligence system), an exhibition of
> photographs and videos shot while an artist-in-residence in the
> South Pole and Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. This will be Samaras'
> first solo show with de Soto.
>
> A recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation, Office
> of Polar Services, Artists and Writers Grant (2004-2005), Los
> Angeles artist Connie Samaras traveled to the U.S. science stations
> at the South Pole and the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica to depict the
> liminal space between extreme climate and life support
> architecture. The title V.A.L.I.S. (vast active living intelligence
> system) is loosely borrowed from science fiction writer Philip K.
> Dick's ruminations on transcendence and technology and underscores
> Samaras' interest in the "fluctuating membrane between fiction and
> real world, between the creation of place and the imaginary,"
> especially political geographies and psychological dislocation in
> the everyday. The resulting photographs and videos reveal the
> simultaneous dystopic and utopic imaginings of the only landscape
> on earth where there are no indigenous peoples.
>
> Connie Samaras is a Professor in the Department of Studio Art UC
> Irvine. She has exhibited and lectured on her work extensively at
> numerous institutions nationally and internationally. In addition
> to the NSF Artist and Writer's grant, other recent awards include,
> California Community Foundation Mid Career Artists Fellowship
> (2006), Anonymous Was A Woman Fellowship (2003), Los Angeles
> Cultural Affairs Visual Arts Fellowship C.O.L.A (2002), and the
> Adaline Kent Award, San Francisco Art Institute (2002).
>
> See more
> http://www.gallerydesoto.com/artists/samaras/conniesamaras.html

> 108 W 2nd St #104
> Los Angeles, Ca 90012
>
> gallery hours: wednesday thru saturday, noon to 6pm
> email: [email protected] tel: 213.617.0434
> image: Connie Samaras, Underneath the
> Amundsen-Scott Station, 2005, C-print (Lightjet)