While half the world’s artist population frets over a looming tech apocalypse (looking at you, A.I.), Petaluma artist Jeffrey Ventrella has already achieved mastery over the machines.
His work, with lunar-like leitmotifs of mandala-like forms, appears both ancient and futuristic, organic and technological. The sense of scale reels between the minute and the vast, as some works evoke the vignetting of a microscope slide or peering into a telescope. Ventrella achieves these results with an artist’s eye and a coder’s acumen for telling algorithms what to do, and as such, is among a new wave of computer-aided creators who are blurring the lines between artist and medium.
Some of Ventrella’s work is featured in “Paint and Pixel,” an exhibition of artworks by painter Doug Bailou and Ventrella that opens with a reception at the IceHouse Gallery in Petaluma on Oct. 5 and continues through the month.
It’s no accident that Ventrella’s work is paired with that of Bailou, a traditional painter whose penchant for similar forms and detail is shared by Ventrella. Their juxtaposition isn’t oppositional but complementary and underscores a premise implicit in their pairing that, indeed, paint and pixels can exist together in harmony.
The Bohemian had a chat with Ventrella about his process.
Bohemian: Your work represents an exciting combination of art and technology—when and how did you discover this symbiosis for yourself?
Jeffrey Ventrella: The critical seeds of discovery started a few moments after birth when I was neither artist nor programmer. I’ve been trying to keep that naive perspective—I just turned 64. In my case, art was very prominent in my family, but I’ve always had a nerdy obsession with geometry and biology. When I discovered fractal curves at age 25, and a snippet of code that magically generated complex, malleable organic forms, I was instantly converted.
B: For that matter, for a little background, when you’re not working on art, what kind of work have you been doing lately (day job, contract work, etc.)? How does one skill set inform the other?
JV: I am at the tail-end of a kaleidoscopic career in software development and design, specializing in computer graphics, virtual worlds, scientific data visualization and physics-based interactive animation for games and artificial life research. I am currently developing a custom virtual reality application for biological research. I am building everything in code, including an immersive user interface. I’m using the Unity game engine and the HTC Vive Pro virtual reality headset.
B: How does one skill set inform the other?
JV: My training in art and design (a BFA, an MFA and a MS from the MIT Media Lab) informs my software development, not just in terms of the end-user experience but in the actual process of evolving a software project. My approach notoriously runs counter to the way many developers (having degrees in computer science) write code.
Conversely, the technical skills I’ve built up over a career of tech employment have been great for me as an artist. Software, unlike paint or clay, is a cognitive medium; I can write code while napping.
B: Can you describe your creative process, from conception to execution—how does the magic happen?
JV: Napping has a lot to do with it. I have to manage all parts of my brain to feed the creative process, including the flow of dopamine, adrenaline and a few external molecules of note. Writing software is not easy. The nutsy-boltsy nature of code messes with one’s ability to see the big picture. My work is about mixing bottom-up processes (like the way crystals grow or the way ants forage for food) with top-down processes (like how a large shape and a combination of colors can be made to evoke a misty landscape or a lumbering animal).
So I try to yo-yo my attention in and out from the details to the grand view as I work. Shifting perspective is critical. In most cases, I have a collection of ideas and techniques that I continually recycle over the years. The magic emerges somewhere in the process.
B: The titles of your pieces suggest an inherent juxtaposition in their creation (“Organic Algorithms,” for example). Do you feel the resulting art reconciles this, or does a tension persist within the art?
JV: Juxtaposition is kind of my jam. From up-close, my art looks like geometry (because it is), but from a distance, something organic and lifelike emerges. When the eye-brain has to work to make out what’s going on, the imagination is kicked up a notch. I am influenced by abstract expressionism and surrealism. I try to grow images that resemble the forms of Gorky, Klee, Miro and Motherwell.
B: Have you shown with Doug Ballou before? What is complementary about your individual oeuvres, and how did the joint exhibit develop?
JV: Amazingly, I only met Doug a few weeks ago. Bill Kane and Joe McDonald, who run the IceHouse Gallery, invited me and Doug to be in a show together. I think we’re a great match in terms of imagery, but also in terms of process and overall attitude. I think Doug has a thoughtful, dedicated process for developing his imagery. Process is also important for me. But in my case, process is specified in algorithms that function as seeds for growth—like genetics and embryology.
Doug and I will display several of our pieces next to each other. I would be delighted if viewers didn’t know at first if they were seeing something made from pixels or from paint. We are both aiming for a similar visual experience, and we want to emphasize the complementarity of our work.
B: What do you hope viewers of your work take away from this exhibit?
JV: I would like to give viewers an opportunity to see computer software as an expressive medium on par with fine art painting. I want viewers to approach these works as they might approach a painting or drawing. My algorithms generate original artworks that benefit from a lifetime of meticulous tuning, tweaking and refining of the genetic seeds for my vision.
I am a fan of “process art” in the sense of an artwork that expresses something about its own making. I want people to feel the growth process behind my imagery as if they were seeing a botanical form or a developing embryo. It’s part of a bigger process that has been going on for about 30 years now.
To view more work by Ventrella, visit ventrella.com/art. Works by Bailou can be found online at Calabi Gallery (calabigallery.com/artists/douglas-ballou) and Instagram (instagram.com/dugbalu).
The opening reception of ‘Paint and Pixel’ is 5 to 8pm, Saturday, Oct. 5, at IceHouse Gallery, 405 East D St. (at Lakeville), Petaluma.
