Aspen Mays, “Dodge Collection 1,” 2013
Light Work has announced the exhibition “Newspaper Rock,” featuring the work of Aspen Mays. The exhibition will run Jan. 16-March 6. An opening reception will take place Thursday, Jan. 30, from 5-7 p.m., with a gallery talk at 6 p.m.
Mays approaches her art-making practice with some of the same methodologies she learned acquiring a degree in anthropology. All of her projects begin by tracking down information, ideas and experts in the fields of science and astronomy. She finds, collects, unearths and creates images and objects that call into question our limited ability and deep desire to understand the vastness, complexity and sublime beauty of the physical universe and our place in it.
Her fieldwork has included a year in Santiago, Chile, at the University of Chile’s National Observatory, known locally as Cerro Calán. Because of its high altitude, dry air and almost non-existent clouds, the Atacama desert of Chile is one of the best places in the world to conduct astronomical observations.
In the desert, Mays could view the night sky with the naked eye in stunning clarity and detail. “The Milky Way is so bright in the desert that it casts a shadow on the ground,” she says. “I knew something that is impossible to know, an awareness of how tiny I am and how connected.”
Mays was born in Asheville, N.C., and raised in Charleston, S.C. She received an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. Her solo exhibitions include “Every Leaf on a Tree” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; “From the Offices of Scientists” at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; and “Sun Ruins” at Golden Gallery, New York.
Mays was a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow in Santiago, where she worked with astronomers who are using the world’s most advanced telescopes. Mays lives and works in Columbus, Ohio, where she is an assistant professor of art at Ohio State University.
A workshop titled “The Dark Arts” will also be led by Mays on Saturday, Feb. 1, from 1-4 p.m. at Light Work Lab in conjunction with “Newspaper Rock.” Registration is open to members and the public. Find more information or register online at http://www.lightwork.org/workshops.
Gallery hours for these exhibitions are Sunday-Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. (except school holidays), and by appointment. To schedule an appointment, call 315-443-1300. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Paid parking is available in Booth Parking Garage.
