PIXEL 2000

In 2000, Tom R. Chambers began to look at the pixel within the context of Suprematist and Geometric Abstractionist art. He equated the pixel with the works of non-objective artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Josef Albers, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Piet Mondrian and others. They generated works to establish an abstract visual language of the sublime, pure color, geometric form, deep contemplation and metaphysical pursuit of the truth. 

The pixels or "Pixelscapes" - as he calls them - conform with many of these non-objective artists' works. They are a revelation for him when compared to these non-objective works generated many years before the pixel and Digital Revolution.

Chambers began to study various images at the pixel level via Photoshop (GIMP) to scrutinize their configurations and color schemes:

 J.D. Jarvis (Art Critic) states:

"In terms of Minimalism, Chambers' works seem almost elaborate, with strong patterns emerging from the basic structure that is the single pixel. Taken to the next extreme would be a sculptural arrangement of individual squares (pixels) of a single color. As if pixels have liberated themselves, through magnification, from any other context and are now present as individual entities in non-virtual space."

Chambers' next generation of "Pixelscapes" is in keeping with Kazimir Malevich's works of 110 years ago under the namesake of Suprematism. He (Chambers) feels that there's no need to look any further than the pixel because it doesn't pretend to be anything else other than what it is - truth. This most basic component of any computer graphic, which stands for picture element, corresponds to the smallest thing that can be drawn on a computer screen. It's also mathematical in the sense that it can be represented by 1 bit, a 1 if the pixel is black, or a 0 if the pixel is white. So Malevich, the Russian Suprematist whose work was a precursor to Minimalism, and those Minimalists who followed later would probably have had great appreciation for this basic and mathematical component - the pixel. 

Chambers' next work with the pixel ... under the namesake of The Primordial Pixel ... focuses on the glitched portions of images that are then magnified:

These "Pixelscapes" are similar to Color Field painting that emerged in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. This movement places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and action in favor of an overall consistency of form and process. In Color Field painting, color is freed from objective context, and it becomes the subject in itself ("Themes in American Art: Abstraction." National Gallery of Art, Web, May 9, 2010).

Color Field painting emerged out of the attempts of several artists to devise a modern, mythic art. Seeking to connect with the primordial emotions locked in ancient myths, rather than the symbols themselves, they sought a new style that would do away with any suggestion of illustration (theartstory.org/movement-color-field-painting). Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt and Arshile Gorky (in his last works) are among the prominent abstract expressionist painters identified as being connected to Color Field painting in the 1950s and 1960s ("Smithsonian Museum Exhibits Color Field Painting", December 7, 2008).

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, young artists began to break away stylistically from Abstract Expressionism experimenting with new ways of making pictures and new ways of handling paint and color. In the early 1960s, several and various new movements in abstract painting were related to each other. Some of the new styles and movements that appeared in the early 1960s as responses to Abstract Expressionism were called: Washington Color School, Hard-edge painting, Geometric Abstraction, Minimalism, and Color Field ("Smithsonian Museum Exhibits Color Field Painting", December 7, 2008).

Exhibitions:

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2005 (group show) (Juror invitation), QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia, July - August, 2005.

“Pixelscapes”, Art and Music 2005 (group show), Coves de Canelobre (Caves of Candalabra), Busot, Spain, August 19 - 21, 2005.

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2005 (group show) (Juror invitation), VCA Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank Victoria, Australia, June - July, 2005.

“Pixelscapes”, aniGma-2, The 2d Novosibirsk International Festival of Digital Imaging & Animation (group show), Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia, April - May, 2005.

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2005 (group show) (Juror invitation), The Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania, Inveresk, Australia, March - April, 2005.

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2004 (group show) (Juror invitation), VCA Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank Victoria, Australia, August - September, 2004.

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2004 (group show) (Juror invitation), QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia, June 4 - August 15, 2004.

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2004 (group show) (Juror invitation), The Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania, Inveresk, Australia, April-May, 2004.

“Pixelscapes”, Museum of Computer Art (MOCA) (solo show), March, 2004.

“Pixelscapes”, “InterGraphic” (group show), Bishkek International Exhibition of Graphic Art, State Museum of Fine Arts, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, February 27 - March 6, 2004.

“Pixelscapes”, “IDAA 2003” (group show) (Juror invitation), VCA Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank Victoria, Australia, December, 2003.

“Pixelscapes”, International Festival of Digital Imaging & Animation (group show), Novosibirsk, Russia, October 18 - 19, 2003.

“Pixelscapes”, Third Novosibirsk International Contemporary Graphic Biennial 2003 (group show), State Picture Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia, September - November, 2003.

“Pixelscapes”, “Art Is Everywhere” (group show), Boston Cyberarts Festival, Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, Boston, Massachusetts, April 26 - May 10, 2003.

“Pixelscapes”, Digital Content Consortium (DCC) Conference (featured artist; solo show) University of North Carolina-Pembroke, March 28-29, with the exhibition to continue at the UNC Art Department/Media Integration Project through May 15, 2003.

“Pixelscapes”, IDAA 2003 (group show) (Juror invitation), The Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania, Australia, March-April, 2003.

“Pixelscapes”, Museum of Contemporary Art (solo show), Solovki (Solovetskie Ostrova/Solovetskie Islands, White Sea), Russia, Summer, 2002.

“Pixelscapes”, ArCade-III in Russia (group show) (an international exhibition of computer generated prints), Novosibirsk, Russia (curated by Sue Gollifer, University of Brighton and the London Institute, UK and by Andrey Martynov, LeVall Art Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia), July 18 - 31, 2002.

“Pixelscapes”, LeVall Art Gallery (solo show), Novosibirsk, Russia, April 4-17, 2002.