Past Exhibitions 2016

Sixfold Symmetry:
Pattern in Art and Science

Installation view, Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, 2016

Artist Victor Ekpuk creates his site-specific piece, Drawing Memory, in Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, September 16, 2016

Installation view, Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, 2016

Thomas Bangsted, Last of the Dreadnoughts, 2011-2012, pigment print, 58.7 x 83 inches, courtesy of the artist and Marc Straus LLC

Installation view of Monir Farmanfarmaian’s First Family – Hexagon, 2010, Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, 2016

Installation view, Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, 2016

Grace DeGennaro, Hours #7, 2016, oil on linen, 26 x 16 inches, courtesy of the artist

Wilson A. Bentley, Snowflake, 1900-1927, gold-chlorine toned microphotographs, 4 x 3 inches, Tang Teaching Museum collection

Artist Victor Ekpuk creates his site-specific piece, Drawing Memory, in Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, September 16, 2016

Installation view, Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, 2016

Installation view of Dean Snyder’s Arachna’s Arcade, 2008, in Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science, Tang Teaching Museum, 2016

Patterns, systems, and networks are all around us, and in this digital age we are increasingly aware of their influence on our lived experience. This exhibition explores some of the ways in which human beings create and manipulate patterns, and why we are intrinsically driven to do so. Patterns allow us to understand and predict complex natural and cultural phenomena, and to create artworks and other structures of surprising complexity and unity.

An interdisciplinary project, the show is co-curated by Rachel Roe-Dale, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Skidmore College, and Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs, Tang Museum, and will feature collaborations by a number of Skidmore College faculty from across the disciplines to help investigate why the human brain discerns, designs, and desires pattern. Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art and Science will include contemporary and historical artworks, artifacts, and material culture from around the world.

This exhibition is co-curated by Rachel Roe-Dale, Associate Professor of Mathematics, and Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs, Tang Museum, in collaboration with: Lisa Aronson, Professor Emeritus of Art History; Grace Burton, Associate Professor of Spanish; Michael Eckmann, Associate Professor of Computer Science; Rebecca Johnson, Associate Professor of Psychology; Elizabeth Macy, Visiting Professor of Music; Josh Ness, Associate Professor of Biology; Gregory Spinner, Teaching Professor in Religious Studies; and Sarah Sweeney, Associate Professor of Art. The exhibition is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Friends of the Tang.

Joel Fisher
Tree, 1990
color aquatint on four sheets of paper

Wilson Alwyn “Snowflake” Bentley
Snowflake, c. 1905
gold-chloride-toned microphotograph

Exhibition Name

Sixfold Symmetry:
Pattern in Art and Science

Exhibition Type

Faculty Curated

Group Exhibitions

Place

Malloy Wing

Dates

Sep 17, 2016 - Mar 12, 2017

Curators

Artists

Thomas Bangsted, Wilson A. Bentley, Janko Gravner and David Griffeath, Grace DeGennaro, Louise Despont, Victor Ekpuk, Monir Farmanfarmaian, Joel Fisher, Vera Molnár, Dean Snyder