John F. Simon Jr. "Drawing Air" A New Software Artwork

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air A New Software Artwork

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

Front Cover: John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, 2020, Software, LED Monitor, Computer, 25.5” x 44.2” x 3”,

Screen Size: 50” diagonal”

Title Page: John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, 2020, Software, LED Monitor, Computer, 25.5” x 44.2” x 3”,

Screen Size: 50” diagonal”

Printed on the occasion of the exhibition John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air at David Richard Gallery October 7 November 8, 2020

Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, 211 East 121st Street, New York, NY 10035 www.DavidRichardGallery.com 212-882-1705 | 505-983-9555 DavidRichardGalleries DavidRichardGallery Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers

All rights reserved by David Richard Gallery, LLC. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC.

Artwork: © 2016 - 2020 - John F. Simon, Jr. Catalogue: © 2020 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Photos and videos: © Yao Zu Lu Drawings images: © John F. Simon, Jr.

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air A New Software Artwork

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John F. Simon Jr. Drawing Air A New Software Artwork David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Drawing Air, the debut of the first all new large-scale software artwork for John F. Simon, Jr. since 2013. This debut is part of a larger presentation that included other breakthroughs and firsts for Simon as part of his decades-long daily practice of meditation and drawing that can be viewed here.

Drawing Air, the name of the new software artwork is also the title for the exhibition. It was conceived and developed as a quarantine project during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown in the spring and summer of 2020. The work consists of two identical tree structures lying on their sides as mirror images of one another. Per the proprietary software program created by Simon, the trees become animated, pulsing and growing, then retracting after each step, expanding ever larger with each pulse until they grow into one another and generate complex designs. During this recursive process the trees generate structures that resemble a pair of lungs, clearly, a vital organ necessary for breathing that is severely affected by Covid-19. In regard to the title, Drawing Air is synonymous with breathing and an appropriate name for the artwork and exhibition conceived during this troubling pandemic. Since this imagery is computed from the software in real time while viewing it on the monitor, there are subtle variations in terms of duration of each image as well as the speed, scale and other parameters, thus never repeating itself like a video loop. After a segment is completed the software program moves to a different set of instructions and images.

The dozen wall sculptures that comprise a majority of the exhibition, albeit stationary and a different medium than the software art, are very much related to the Drawing Air software in two distinct ways. First, all of the works in the show are derived from drawing. While the artwork Drawing Air was conceived and developed with software, the lines on screen are an ephemeral digital drawing, there one minute and gone the next. The wall sculpture designs were chosen from the thousands of drawings Simon has generated in his decades long daily drawing practice. Second, from a process perspective, all of these works were digital at some point along the way. After the drawings for the wall sculptures were selected, they were scanned and digitized, then modeled in 3-D and carved out of a foam-like material using a robotic milling machine in the artist’s studio. Following construction into the three-dimensional wall sculptures, the surfaces were painted and drawn on to bring the artist’s hand back to the final work.

David Eichholtz New York October, 2020

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John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, 2020 Software, LED Monitor, Computer 44.2 x 25.5 x 3” Screen Size: 50” diagonal

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John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Mutation 1

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Click on image above to view a short video

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Mutation 2 Lungs

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John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Wings 1

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Click on image above to view a short video

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Wings 2 Lungs

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Click on image above to view a short video

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Kalideoscope 2 Lung

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Click on image above to view a short video

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Kalidoscope 1

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Click on image above to view a short video

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Lungs 1

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Click on image above to view a short video

John F. Simon, Jr. Drawing Air, Detail: Lungs 2 Kalidoscope

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Click on image above to view a short video

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About John F. Simon, Jr.:

John F. Simon, Jr. a New York-based artist who uses programming and digital language as his primary visual medium. He combines his digital explorations of color and pattern with diverse laser cut, engraved and inlayed materials, assemblages, paint and graphite to create complete environments and visualizations of meditative explorations. Simon also explores the web as an important tool for creativity and communication.

He has been creating a new drawing everyday and posting them on iclock. com since 2008.

Simon earned his MFA in computer art from the School of visual arts in New York, an MA in Earth and Planetary Science form Washington University in St. Louis, as well as a BA in Studio Art and BS in Geology, both from Brown University in Providence, RI. His artworks have been exhibited internationally and he was represented by Sandra Gering in New York for much of his career, Simon has had numerous museum exhibitions at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Albright Knox Art Gallery; Buffalo, NY, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Digital Art Museum [DAM], Berlin, Germany, Louisiana Art and Science Museum, Baton Rouge, LA, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA, University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, an Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, Denver Art Museum; Denver, CO, among many other others.

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A discussion with Sandra Gering, John F. Simon, Jr. and David Eichholtz about Simon’s new exhibition, Drawing Air. The discussion also included Simon’s daily meditation and drawing practice, the trajectory of his artwork over the past 3 decades and his representation by Gering during the seminal period of his software-based artwork in the 1980s in New York.

Click image above to watch gallery talk

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY