Travess Smalley: Ender Gallery Exhibition Opening

Join the MacKenzie Art Gallery for the opening of Travess Smalley’s solo exhibition, “Chance Language Resource Pack.” Throughout his residency, Smalley modified the world of Minecraft, replacing colourful textures with descriptive words. The resulting resource pack transforms the game into poetry, exploring lush landscapes becomes navigating fields of text. Working within the context of generative art practices, Smalley will take us through the piece’s influences ranging from within the game of Minecraft to the canon of digital art. The resource pack will be made available to be downloaded and modified, so participants can develop their own interactive concrete poetry experiences. Audience members are encouraged to join on-server. The event will also be livestreamed to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.

The gallery invites you to experience the performance first-hand on the Minecraft platform. To participate in Minecraft, you will require a licensed copy of the Java edition of the game and a corresponding Minecraft account to join the server. Please contact cbluemke@mackenzie.art if you would like to join in-server but do not have an account. Instruction on how to join are available at www.ender.gallery/howtojoin

The performance will also be livestreamed to the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s social media, including its Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch accounts, which are viewable without a Minecraft account.

About the artist:

Travess Smalley is an artist working with computation to make generative image systems. Smalley is interested in painting software, chance, computer graphics, and drawing. His artwork is represented by Foxy Production in New York and he is currently teaching and studying towards a MFA in Digital + Media at Rhode Island School of Design. Smalley has exhibited and lectured on his generative image making practice widely and internationally since 2008, including a lecture at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky – Centre Pompidou in Paris during spring 2016 about his ongoing series of self-published print-on-demand books. Smalley’s artwork is also in the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art and Hood Museum of Art. His work has been shown at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Kunsthal Rotterdam, and International Center of Photography, New York City.