Robert Nelson “Awakening”
Solo Exhibition
Opening August 4, 4-6pm On view through September 30, 2018
Museum of Art and History 665 W. Lancaster Blvd. Lancaster, CA 93534 Tuesday-Sunday 11-6 PM Extended Hours Thursday 11AM-8 PM
L.A. ARTIST ROBERT NELSON’S A.I. AWAKENING AT MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY, LANCASTER, CA
Robert Nelson is encouraging viewers’ Awakening in his new exhibition, a part of The Robot Show at the Museum of Art and History opening this August.
Using a vivid palette, mixing pop and surrealist styles, Nelson juxtaposes images that play with deep, edgy ideas of technology. The artist poses the question as to whether the ease of technology use will lead to great good or great evil, and wonders whether in the end, technology will destroy us or save us.
“Awakening for us is an ongoing, never-ending process,” Nelson explains. “What of our creations? Is the capacity there for an awakening, and if so, what does that mean? Will it be in our image or from their own design?”
In this series, he posits that an awakening for our technological creations could result in a transcendence that will surpass what human beings can obtain. For the artist, humanity is not necessarily the end goal of evolution.
Posing these questions, Nelson uses images taken from the Renaissance, while employing a retro-future imagery, leading viewers to explore the compression of time as well as the potent potential of technology.
Throughout Awakening, Nelson’s vibrant colors and delicate, detailed compositions lend themselves to an intimate contemplation of provocative questions. “Why would these beings be like us in any way? We could merely be a step in the evolution to create this artificial intelligence and allowing it to awaken.”
The centerpiece to Nelson’s exhibition is “Pandora’s Child,” a triptych that features a stunning robotic figure, arms akimbo, with a heart in its chest. On either side of the figure, two Mickey Mouse images, mouse ears partially lifted to reveal human brains and mechanical gears inside their heads, pay tribute to the central figure. Above them all, angels, flowers, plummeting planes; at their feet, the water rises, a bed of human skulls beneath the flow. A powerful image that portends both man’s destruction and the approval of Heavenly angels, the work is created in Nelson’s typically brilliant hues, with references to time past as well as the future, a future which may be – now.
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MOAH is located at: 665 W. Lancaster Blvd. Lancaster, CA 93534 Tuesday-Sunday 11-6 PM Extended Hours Thursday 11AM-8 PM
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