Channing Hansen : Morphogenesis

16 Nov-21 Dec 2018

Overview

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new, large-scale works by American artist Channing Hansen. Hansen's paintings comprise abstract, hand-knitted constructions stretched over wooden frames. Developing his longstanding interest in the crossover between craft, science and technology, this new body of textiles is the most technically complex the artist has made to date. The exhibition takes the late work of Alan Turing, WWII code breaker, and father of computer science, as its inspiration. Turing's theory of ‘morphogenesis' hypothesised how patterns and structures such as stripes, spots, and spirals can form spontaneously in nature through genetic abnormalities. Inspired by Turing's biological principle, the design of Hansen's paintings in the exhibition are produced by a unique computer algorithm that is able to generate potentially infinite combinations of colour, fibre, and knit.