the sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building

Dan Paz 

Vachon Gallery | December 7th, 2018 - February 2, 2019

2018 SU High-Resolution Media Art Production Residency

Dan Paz's multimedia exhibition, the sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building, integrates forms of high-resolution video technology, choreographed dance, participatory public art, cast concrete sculpture, and early photogram technology to explore and analyze the physical and psychological effects of light in forms of forced and voluntary collectivity.

Paz's investigations highlight material choices in carceral construction (specifically youth detention centers) and recreational sports environments- foregrounding the relationship between the manipulation and management of light to the manipulation and management of social and political power.

_{Dan Paz, the sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building, residency and exhibition at Vachon Gallery. Winter 2018-19. Photo by Dan Paz.}

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About the Artist

Dan Paz is a visual artist and educator whose work and teaching explore the labor of lens-based production as a collaborative site where the intersections of the image-idea and lived experience are produced and contested. In videos, photography, and sculptural projects that query the ability of documented processes to be manipulated—to be multiplied and replicated, stopped and started, rewound and advanced—Dan specifically works within the impossibilities of absolute replication to question the very ability of the image to truly represent. The resultant body of work explores the contours of identity and community within rich socio-historical frameworks. Select exhibitions include: Hayward Gallery London, UK; the 12th Havana Biennial at Fábrica de Arte Cubano, Havana, Cuba; Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, Netherlands; The Media lab, NYC; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Gene Siskel Film Center, and The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, IL.

Dan’s exhibitions have been generated out of residencies with El Centro Desarollo de Artes in Havana, Cuba; The Studios of Key West; Chicago Artist Coalitions’ Hatch Residency; The Luminary in St. Louis, MO; ACRE in WI. In 2018, High-Resolution Media Arts Residency with Hedreen Gallery at Seattle University. Selected Awards include The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur’s Connection Fund, The Ann Metzger National Award for Prints, The LinksHall LinkUP Grant & Residency, Open Practice Committee Grant, University of Chicago Arts Council funding, the Claire Kantor Foundation Grant, and The Wyckoff Milliman Endowment Grant to name a few. An internet site launch of a publication on Paz’s 10-year collaborative project Arte No Es Facil l/ Art Present is forthcoming.

Dan is currently a member-curator of the Seattle-based curatorial collective, The Alice. www.danpaz.com

*This exhibition title is quoted from the film My Architect. Bher, Susan Rose; Kahn, Nathaniel (Producers), & Kahn, Nathaniel (Director). (2003). My Architect [Motion Picture]. 

SU High-Resolution Media Art Production Residency

This experimental program seeks to support an emerging or mid-career artist who practices lens-based art production (photo, video, film, mechatronics) and who engages with a critical and experimental use of high-resolution image-making processes. The resident artist collaborates with students, faculty, and staff in multiple academic departments to produce original research and a solo gallery exhibition in Vachon Gallery. Dan Paz is the first artist to take part in this program, from March-December 2018.

This year-long digital residency has been organized by Seattle U Galleries Curator Molly Mac and anchored with funding and production support from SUVAIR (Seattle University Visual Artist in Residence) program, Pigott Endowment for the Arts and Seattle University’s Hedreen Gallery. Seattle University Art Galleries and the Departments of Fine Art and Art History are proud to support the critical research and creative production of contemporary new media artists in collaboration with students and faculty.

 *The banner image at the top of this page features artwork by Carol Rashawnna Williams (2019), Romson Regarde Bustillo (2019), Sanctuary City Project (2019-20), and E.T. Russian (2019-20).

Hedreen Gallery

Lee Center for the Arts (CNFA)

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