d berman gallery is pleased to present new digital collages by Sarah Greene Reed and sculptures by Shawn Smith. Whereas the smooth surfaces of Ms. Reed’s prints imply illusions of depth, Mr. Smith creates complex three dimensional pieces inspired by flat, grainy pixils of digital media.

Sarah Greene Reed says, “I strive to create a non-hierarchical playing field, a visual dumping ground, for objects that I find interesting … I am fascinated with color and, on a certain level, could be happy making color compositions alone. However, my real satisfaction lies in combining these interests: layering, painting, masking, and rearranging until I reach the perfect balance of successful visual composition and charged dialogue between objects. … Recently, I have become fascinated with the notion of beauty. In these turbulent times, I feel that people need beauty now more than ever. I wrestled for years with the guilt of making pretty art; now, I am allowing myself to make unapologetically beautiful work.”

Shawn Smith says, “My work investigates the slippery intersection between the digital world and reality. Specifically, I am interested in how we experience nature through a television or a computer screen. Readily available images make us believe that we ‘know’ these natural objects but we really only identify patterns of pixilated light. Recently I have been creating a series of what I call ‘Re-Things.’ These whimsical objects are sculptural representations of digital information that symbolize objects of nature. Through the process of pixilation, some bits of information are lost and the form is abstracted. I see my building process as an experiment in alchemy using man-made composite materials to represent natural forms.”

Ms. Reed received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and pursued master studies at the University of Houston. She now lives in Austin and teaches at The Art School at Austin Museum of Art – Laguna Gloria. Mr. Smith has just returned to Texas after receiving his MFA at California College of the Arts and designing Doppel-Fountain, a monumental stainless steel sculpture in San Francisco.