40,075 (km, earth's circumference)

40,075 – First Solo Show for Micah Schippa (km, earth’s circumference)

Opening Reception Saturday, October 1, 2014 at BORN NUDE Gallery, 1711 S. Halsted St., Suite #2, Chicago

Recently Aaron (aka Micah) was selected for his first solo exhibition in Chicago.  It looked at beginnings and endings, starts and finishes.  Many of you contributed to his Indiegogo crowdfunding project……thank you for your support and generosity.  As I understand it, Chicago is a hard art scene to break thru as its population is more about Finance and Commerce than Art, so getting this type of exposure is hard to come by at such a young age.  This is especially true when the focus is experimental art.

AVANT-GARDE MAGAZINE describes experimental art this way:

For many people who look at experimental art, it can be difficult to identify between the artists that are pursuing genuine artistic paths and those that are being obtuse or awkward in their work or medium simply for the purpose of standing out and being different from the established norms, so there is a fine balancing act to be done in identifying experimental arts. Generally anything that takes an existing artistic medium and does something different with it that hasn't been done before, or creating an entirely new artistic medium can be considered experimental, but there is a lot more to it than that.

In terms of the different types of art that can be considered experimental, and the various fields in which experimentation can take place is really very wide, and whether it is in breaking new ground in a stale or traditional art form, or being entirely new and redefining what can even be considered art, the experimental art really is a very broad church. The definitions will also vary from person to person and their own individual definitions for what they can consider to be experimental, so getting an exact handle on the subject is really quite difficult.

What has very much become a part of the avant-garde movement is that although it was originally used to promote specific political or social views, it is much more about experimenting for the sake of pushing the boundaries of art, and doing so simply to see how much these boundaries can actually be changed. Doing something experimental in art is less about trying to get tributes and glory as an artist, but is rather more about the mediums that are being used, and experimenting with the rules and restrictions normally found in the field.

In terms of the experimental aspects of art, there are certain artists who have truly been revolutionary for their time, and have changed the goalposts in terms of what can be done with a specific medium, and movements have sprung up from such work such as the impressionism of Monet, and the surrealism of Dali. These artists helped to develop their own part of experimental art culture, which would go on to become a big part of the recognized culture as their experimentation and work within the avant-garde was recognized by a much larger audience.

Trying to go out specifically to be experimental and to push the boundaries of a chosen medium will often prove to be a fruitless task unless there is an artistic motivation behind it, and for those who have specifically been experimental simply to try and achieve recognition their work can often come across as being crass and self-serving. However, for those who are genuinely trying to push the borders of the art form that they love, and to make art that is genuine and that people will be able to see is sincere, it can have a striking and bold look that will make the audience stand up and take notice, even if the experimental isn't entirely successful.

Micah was drawn to experimental art from a very young age, fascinated by untried and non-traditional mediums and techniques.  To those of us less inclined, this can sometimes be a head-scratcher.  That may be the point.  This body of work was about experimentation. The large canvas achieved thru unconventional materials and processes required a great deal of trial and error before achieving the final outcome, as well as the candles, glass the weight of the human brain and heart, photographs and lights.  The music played on the outer walkway supported these objects.  The gallery was packed throughout the evening.  Here is a snippet of the work.  Micah is in the white, Dan is next to him, proud mom and dad flanking the ends.