July 31, 2023

Visakh Menon is an artist from India, based in Queens, New York. His interdisciplinary studio practice spans drawing, painting & media art with a focus on human machine interaction & it’s impacts on visual perception. His current series of abstract drawings and paintings are driven by the practice of repetitive mark making as an act of meditation. These abstract works aim to create a visual space derived from algorithmic aesthetics with the repetitive lines creating optical & spatial shifts referencing screen space.

He received his M.F.A from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2007. He is represented by BluePrint 12 Gallery in India and 1×1 Gallery, Dubai and his artworks are part of numerous corporate, public and private collections in the US and abroad. He has exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Marfa, Miami, New Delhi, Kochi & Dubai. Menon currently also works as an independent creative director & branding designer and is an adjunct design faculty with the Communications Design Department at NY City College of Technology (CUNY). Born 1980, Kochi, India

Toggling between digital and analog mediums of expression is at the heart of my studio practice. During my time as an artist in residence, the access to resources & the expertise of the staff at the institute enabled exploring new possibilities with both these mediums & to create two distinct series of artworks utilizing the extensive, analog printmaking & digital Fabrication resources available at Alfred IEA.

My current series of drawings and paintings create a visual space derived from algorithmic aesthetics with the repetitive lines creating optical & spatial shifts referencing screen space, glitches, error & noise. In the printmaking studio, I created an intaglio print on zinc plates. I scratched away the hard ground on the first plate with an etching needle in a repetitive mark-making process that felt similar yet different to working with paint markers and nib pens on paper and wood panels in my studio practice. For the second plate, I created a minimal digital image and translated it to the plate using stencils made on the vinyl cutter. This plate was used to create the color blocks and base color tone using aquatints. Having access to the printmaking facilities at IEA helped push my current “interference” series of abstract paintings further using printmaking techniques & I hope to continue to explore the same, on a smaller scale, back at my studio in Queens, NY.

In the digital fabrication studio, I created a series of laser engravings on watercolor paper. The engraved images were algorithmically generated, with code written in Processing & P5.js. This series titled “interstellar” is an experimental generative open semantic script, incorporating elements of calligraphy, expressionistic typography & graffiti lettering. I created a series of test patterns to work out the line weight & tone in relation to optimal power levels on the laser cutter. This series of engravings are the first ever physical outputs from this series of generative works I have created and I am excited for the possibility of creating tangible digital-physical objects in the future. – Visakh Menon