AQUACULTURE: July 28 – September 15, 2012

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 28, 5 - 8pm

AQUACULTURE | AFTER DARK: September 12 - 14, 3pm - 9pm

Closing Reception: Saturday, Sepember 15, 7pm - 9pm

      Aran Cravey Gallery is pleased to present “AQUACULTURE,” an exhibition by Jed Berk and Oliver McIrwin. In this multimedia collaboration, Jed Berk and Oliver McIrwin stretch the boundaries of our perceptions of organic and synthetic, intertwining art and engineering to create an installation that challenges our perceived equilibrium with nature.
Through this intersection of art and technology, the sculptures, photographs and video work in the exhibition combine to create a dynamic, environmental prototype that explores our shared belonging and emotional connection to the living world. In Berk and McIrwin’s artistically engineered ecosystem, flora and fauna interact with each other and the viewer in a self-prescribed organic exchange that questions the nature of natural. The paradigm of our natural environment is pulled apart, creating a tenuous balance between opposing emotions. It is within these states of flux, suspended between memory and time, that our ability to routinely regulate the everyday with the chaotic is questioned, allowing for the potential of an alternative narrative.

Jed Berk (b.1973) Born in New York, Jed Berk lives in Los Angeles, CA. He received a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and an MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. He has exhibited in the US and internationally in venues such as Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei Taiwan; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Museum of Modern Art, Salzburg Austria; Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark; Espaço Cultural Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Art Center Nabi, Seoul, Korea; and Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine, CA.

Oliver McIrwin (b.1974) was born in New York and currently lives in Los Angeles. He received a BFA from UC Santa Cruz, an MFA from Claremont Univerity and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and internationally, including exhibitions at ACE Gallery in Los Angeles, White Columns in New York and the Morii Gallery in Tokyo.