Participating Artists
Laurel Beckman, Heather Carson, Dorit Cypis, Dana Duff,
Paul Evans, Juan Gomez, Norma Jones, Donald Krieger, Carl Smith,
Erica Steiner, Jeffrey Vallance, World Imitation Productions

The term “high strangeness” originates from the world of UFOlogy. The term describes phenomena that has been widely reported and even documented, yet can never seem to be proved scientifically as existing. The show collects a group of artists who are influenced by this body of alternative knowledge. The work in this show reflects an interest in the numinous, the luminous, the uncanny and the unexplained. Most of the work in the show does not deal directly with these issues, but uses them as a sort of matrix from which the work springs. The work is in a variety of mediums, to signal that the ideas
behind the work is a unifying aspect. The exhibition space is being transformed into a series of experiential zones, with work in a variety of mediums playing off of each other.

Laurel Beckman re-configures full page ads taken from the LA Times, literally cutting out visual and written information
to create hybrid collage-like objects that represent the mundane in a slightly futuristic mode.

Heather Carson works with artificial light sources, creating monumental formalist sculptures that mutate combinations
of warm and cold light, transforming the spaces they occupy.

Dorit Cypis, known for her post-conceptualist installations, will transform the windows of the Center for the Arts with transparent clusters of language.

Dana Duff will be showing exotic miniature aquatic environments that hint erotically at glimpses of other worlds.

Paul Evans contributes a series of drawings and paintings that mine the mysterious and refer to the numinous in a flat, dead-pan style.

Juan Gomez, musician and founding member of the post-punk band Human Hands, is creating a site-specific sound field for the show.

Norma Jones combines ayahuasca science fiction tropes with pop culture collectables.

Donald Krieger shows aberrant abstract sculptures that resemble skewed architectural
models run through a day-glo chop shop.

Carl Smith continues his exploration of orbs of obsessively detailed glitter-etched line work
in a series of recent paintings.

Erica Steiner paints delicate alien jewel forms floating over empty optimistic landscapes.

Jeffery Vallance contributes several works dealing with phantom objects found in an extreme enlargement of an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.