Friday, September 10, 2010

NERS: "Sparkles, Sprinklers, and Bad Seeds"


NERS recently unveiled his latest body of work at Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis. Sparkles, Sprinklers, and Bad Seeds channels suburban angst and nature lust in the artist's characteristically bright and straightforward fashion. Works on colored paper with clean, simple lines and sculptures combining natural elements with unexpectedly painted areas in brilliant colors fill the Harrison Center's Gallery 2. The space was once a chapel and presents a novel and engaging if challenging environment for exhibiting contemporary art.


So what exactly is the significance or meaning of Sparkles, Sprinklers, and Bad Seeds? Sparkles reference diamonds and wealth, sprinklers reference summer, and bad seeds refers to misbehaving children. Sustainability is a recurring thread in NERS' work and is manifested in various ways. For the first time, the artist has chosen to employ pedestals in an installation and of course he could not do so in a conventional way. Rather than a standard white rectangle, NERS' pedestals are logs with the upper surface painted white. In one case, a log sculpture is situated atop a log-based pedestal, blurring lines between exhibition components and art. Painting the surface of the logs that holds the art white makes for an interesting syncretism between traditional gallery culture and the sort of nature maverick approach to art that NERS takes.


Sparkles, Sprinklers, and Bad Seeds finds NERS at an interesting point. Having weathered a personally challenging but perhaps artistically fulfilling fifteen month period after obtaining his BFA from Herron School of Art and Design, this show is one that would have taken place in the past if not for the personal upheaval that resulted in Magical Wonderfulness. The work still feels fresh in large part, and this show marks the end of logs, pinecone shapes and hand-drawn diamond shapes in the artist's iconology. Who knows what the future will hold for NERS, but indeed it will be a....bright one.

For more pictures and text and a video interview with the artist, check out Outposts From The Material World

3 Responses to “NERS: "Sparkles, Sprinklers, and Bad Seeds"”

Liriodendron said...
September 11, 2010 at 12:44 AM

Nerd or dork? :p


Anonymous said...
October 27, 2010 at 9:52 AM

This is some really pointless and bad craft posing as real art. It's bad enough that the artist has absolutely no idea how naive and silly he comes off, but the product that he ends up with is even more silly. It's sad to see this happening to Indianapolis, this continuance of artist-wannabes putting on exhibits of horrible stuff. No wonder our art market is dying.


Anonymous said...
November 2, 2010 at 4:30 PM

What....you don't like the rainbow butt plugs?


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