Keynote
Megan Geckler Follow on Instagram: megangecklerstudio Since the mid-nineties, Megan Geckler has been consistently refining her process of making large-scale, site-specific artistic interventions within architectural examples. The point at which her artwork ends and the site begins is rendered nebulous, and investigates our inherent human desire to define and control the space around us. Building upon the phenomenological experiential qualities of James Turrell’s works, and created with off-the-shelf materials similar to Tara Donovan’s sculptures, with a nod to the mesmerizing Op-Art works of Bridget Riley, Geckler’s work is similar in form to oversized versions of Naum Gabo’s constructions, that transport the viewer into an otherworldly immersive environment, akin to Yayoi Kusama’s mirror rooms. Ultimately, Geckler is defining a new territory that explores how we perceive space and materials that we may have encountered millions of times before, she is recontextualizing our optical order, and precision reigns supreme. Geckler experiments with off-the-shelf construction items, essentially lifting them out of an easily recognizable context. She repositions these humble materials within sprawling artworks that allow them to transcend their primary and utilitarian functions. In 1999 Geckler discovered flagging tape, a mass-produced material used to temporarily demarcate construction zones, primarily used by men. Flagging tape has become Geckler’s signature material, the versatility and translucency of the plastic ribbon lends itself to being layered and woven, allowing her to expand upon the rather limited palette of fourteen colors. As a student and teacher of color theory, these color restrictions became welcome challenges for Geckler as she mastered blending tertiary hues and manipulating optical orders that result in unlikely color combinations that service her large-scale line drawings in space, creating moments of extreme depth and punctuated saturation. In 2012 Geckler began working with hand-dyed ropes and cords, polished and coated metals, printed glass, sublimated dye on aluminum, and other durable permanent media. Her hyper-colorful installations are equal parts whimsy and master craftsmanship, evident in her exacting process of manipulating space. Rather than merely attaching hardware to a surface and connecting her works to an intermediate structure, Geckler’s works are inexorably attached to the site itself, and challenges the very nature of site-specificity as a genre. By utilizing CAD and three-dimensional modeling programs, she is able to design her work “in the round”, albeit in a digital realm, enhancing viewer experience and appreciation of the nuances of both man-made and natural environments. Her extremely rigorous process assures that the resulting works exemplify her hyper-focused mathematical approach, and serve as literal and visual connections between architectural, mathematical, design, and fine art practices. Geckler is flirting with our preconceived definitions of how art may function as experience. She broadens our relationship with space, math, and physics by inviting us to explore her immersive artworks and engage within a “community of looking”, to essentially transport viewers to an alternate dimension of highly-orchestrated spectacle.
Megan Geckler is an American artist (b. 1975, Abington, PA) living and working in Los Angeles, California. She received her BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art (Elkins Park, PA) in 1998 and her MFA from Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, CA) in 2001. Her large-scale, site-specific installations and drawings have been exhibited internationally at Customs House (Sydney, NSW, Australia), The Courtauld Institute (London, United Kingdom), and at Paris Fashion Week (Paris, France). In America, she has mounted large-scale, site-specific installations at venues such as the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, UT), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), Dumke Arts Plaza (Ogden, UT), Breck Create (Breckenridge, CO), Museum of Art and History (Lancaster, CA), Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, CA), Vincent Price Museum of Art (Monterey Park, CA), Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA), and Pasadena Museum of California Art (Pasadena, CA). Geckler has been awarded multiple public art commissions including projects at the LAX Airport, and was awarded the City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship by the Department of Cultural Affairs in 2016. Her work is in the corporate collections of Creative Artists Agency (Los Angeles, CA); Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL); Nike (Portland, OR), Human Rights Campaign (Washington, DC), eBay (San Jose, CA), SoulCycle (Hoboken, NJ), and Facebook (Northridge, CA). Her artworks have been profiled by ArtForum, “O” The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Interior Design Magazine, Colossal, The Sydney Morning Herald, Fabrik, LA Weekly, The Creators Project, Designboom, Artillery, Elle Decor Italia, Los Angeles Times, The Getty Research Institute Newsletter, The Associated Press, Art Ltd., Huffington Post, Artweek LA, ArchDaily, ArtUS, ArtDaily, The Columbus Dispatch, Artscene, Design Milk, Flavorpill, and Glasstire, among many others. |
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