Carol Prusa

Artist Statement

My constructed domes are provocative symbols that invoke the idea of the universe and physical objects that allude to real-life structures. In my "canopies," I explore a number of mathematical models that physicists developed to explain our universe. The mathematics of my expressed geometries offer a spiritual force that organizes structures from the microscopic to the political. Here, geometry isn't simply abstract but creates a real world, sustained by its own logic.

To realize the startling phenomena that shape our everyday world, I incorporate digital projection and video technology. Like scientists and mathematicians who model emergent behavior, I too yearn to create a radical vision, one that takes into account the chaotic interactions that are central to formation of the universe.

As artists and scientists seek to explain our place, I join the most advanced daydreamers - those who imaginatively visualize a creative matrix and explore otherworldly possibilities - those who embrace indeterminacy and the fundamentally unstable boundaries between infinitesimal and immeasurable realms.

"[The Universe] is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures." -- Galileo Galilei, Il Saggiatore, 1623

Recent work consists of acrylic hemispheres ranging from bowl-sized to five feet in diameter, articulated with silverpoint drawing and graphite on the convex illuminated surfaces, punctuated by patterns of fiber optic lights.

Bio

Carol Prusa was born in Chicago, earned her B.S from the University of Illinois and M.F.A. from Drake University. She currently teaches painting as an Associate Professor of Art at Florida Atlantic University.  She has been in numerous exhibitions and her work is in private and public collections including the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Telfair Museum, the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, and the Arkansas Art Center. Her work traveled in the Triennial Exhibition of German and American Artists curated by the American Museum of Arts and Design, NYC, exhibited at the Museum for Angewandte Kunst - Frankfurt and at the Museum of Arts and Design.  

Selected One Person Exhibitions

2013  (Upcoming) University of Wyoming

         (Upcoming) Telfair Art Museum, Savannah, Georgia

2012  (Upcoming) Kohler Art Center, Kohler, Wisconsin

         University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

2011  Domus, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL

2010  Emergence, Coleman Burke Gallery, Chelsea, NYC

         EO Art Lab, Connecticut

2009  Successive Approximations, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine

2009  Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida

2009  Entanglement, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami

2008  Spooky Action, Finestra non-profit space, Fine Arts Building, Chicago

2007-8  Threshold, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami

2007  Coherent Structures - Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, Florida

2006  Eyebiters, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami

2006  To Be Us, Lakatamia Municipalia, Nicosia Cyprus

2005  Silverpoint Painting, Carol Prusa, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock Arkansas

Selected Curated, Group Exhibitions

2012  Winter Salon, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA

         The Abstract Universe, Maloney Art Gallery, Morristown, NJ

         Woman to Woman, Bakehouse Art Center, Miami, FL

2011  Full Fathom Five, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Chelsea, New York

         Seeing Is Knowing: The Universe, Carleton College, Northfield, MN

         Believe It Or Not, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Florida

         Green House, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL

         Silver Linings, Chautauqua Art Center, Chautauqua, NY

         Silver: Points of Departure, Tinney Contemporary Gallery, Nashville, TN

         Exhibit featuring works from Renowned Private Collections, curated by Gean Moreno

2010  Art Miami, Basel-Miami, Miami, FL

         Between Here and There: Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, Miami Art Museum

         Metaphysical Materiality, Tinney Contemporary Gallery, Nashville, TN

         Redefining Drawing, Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC, curated by Rachel Rosenfield Lafo

         Metaphysical Materiality, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

         Luminous Lines, Scripts College, CA, curated by Margaret Mathews-Berenson

         Florida Contemporary Artists, Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL

2009  Starry Messenger: Galileo's Vision in the 21st Century Art, Louisiana Museum of Art and Science

         Whitespaces, Mordes Collection, West Palm Beach, FL

         Set to Manuel, Girl's Club Collection/Bishop-Good, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

         Recent Acquisitions, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL

         Five Person Exhibition, Kentler International Drawing Space, New York

         Five Person Exhibition, Connecticut College, New London, CT

         Silverpoint Artists, Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, Indiana

         Five Artists, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, New York

         Painters not Painting, Rutgers Art Gallery, Philadelphia

2008  Grey, Miller-Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

         Drawn to Detail, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts

         Shades of Grey, Frist Center for the Arts, Nashville, Tennessee (five-person)

         Consortium Fellowship exhibition - Ft. Lauderdale Art Museum, Florida

2007  Homegrown Southeast 2007, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC

2006  The Luster of Silver: Contemporary Metalpoint, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

          Think Warm: Miami Draws for You, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Public Collections

Miami Art Museum
U.S. Embassy, Nicaragua
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri
Telfair Museum, Savannah, Georgia
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Museum of Art - Fort Lauderdale, Florida