Stan VanDerBeek: Machine Art
- Date
- January 26, 2027 - May 23, 2027
- Location
- Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery
The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents Stan VanDerBeek: Machine Art, on display from January 26 through May 23. The exhibition will be shown concurrently with Alison Knowles: The House of Dust.
Stan VanDerBeek (American, 1927–1984) was a pioneering intermedia artist and filmmaker, who, from 1975 until his untimely death in 1984, was professor of visual arts at UMBC and founder of the university’s Image Lab, the predecessor to the Imaging Research Center. This exhibition explores the artist’s wide-ranging experimental practice from his early forays into blending computer graphics and intaglio printmaking, to transmitted collage murals, and computer-generated animated films created at Bell Labs. The exhibition includes loans of artwork previously displayed at the Library Gallery in 1976 alongside newly remastered films and archival documentation from Special Collections. Together, these works demonstrate VanDerBeek’s prescient engagement with technologies of communication that are especially relevant in an era of generative AI and global connectivity.
An exhibition reception will be held on Thursday, March 4, at 6 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.
The exhibition will feature the event Future Variations on April 15, an interdisciplinary exploration of the 1965 multimedia work Variations V presented by Stan VanDerBeek, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma, Nam June Paik, Robert Moog, Billy Klüver, and others. Additional details are forthcoming.
Visitor Information
Admission is free. For driving directions and parking information, please visit here.
Library Gallery hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Image: Stan VanDerBeek, Moveable Mandala I, 1976, Nine color silkscreens on paper. Computer graphics from “Poemfield” series, Unique, Paper size: 25 1/2 x 25 1/2 in. ©Estate of Stan VanDerBeek. Courtesy of Stan VanDerBeek Archive and Magenta Plains, New York. used with permission.