Rojorshi Ghosh and Ray Klimek bring landscapes and locales to Roy this month. Klimek’s Carbon photograph series seems to depict vast fields of stars or galaxies. It turns out these cosmic vistas are illusions, and the photos are really close-ups of coal mine waste. Coal is often called “buried sunshine” and such metaphorical re-examination of the earthbound is central to Klimek’s work. At the meeting of coal fields and star fields there is space to consider the histories involved in the production of carbon-based life forms and in the production of the energy we use every day.

Other Klimek photos mimic the jagged panoramas of NASA photos, or show what appear to be the barren terrains of distant planets. This series is called Analogs, referring to the simulation of conditions on other planets. These illusions allow the mind to wander between locations, between the miniscule and the massive, the mundane and the exotic. It allows us to look inward and simultaneously outward.

Also concerned with re-examination of space, Rojorshi Ghosh’s work features video projections and light box photographs. Much of Ghosh’s work transports the viewer to the local realities of India’s recent history, but it’s simultaneous specificity and abstraction of image make for an unsettling experience. One projection is a view of an old elevator going up and down, forming shifting black and white patterns as it goes. But this elevator doesn’t exist, because the projection is pieced together video. Thus, to experience this video is to be many places at once.

In the other projection, the black silhouettes of birds wheel over Delhi to a soundtrack of horns, sirens, song, and voices that wanders between music and cacophony. The birds (kites) are considered to be djinn, or spirits, from the city’s past.

Layering of abstraction and representation of location can also be seen in Ghosh’s light boxes. One shows an image of a propaganda poster, torn in half to disfigure the face on it. The images work to situate viewers in recent politics while the abstraction works to distance them.

Shifting location and a multilayered present can be seen in both halves of the show, as the artists re-imagine familiar landscapes as sites for fantasy and play.

By Chris Greathouse

Congratulations to all 2012 exhibition season recipients.

2012 Exhibition Season Schedule

January 7 – 28, 2012

Hans Gindlesberger and Michael Sherwin

February 4 – 25, 2012

Millee Tibbs, Lauren Kalman, and George Gregory

March 3 – 31, 2012

Christopher Greathouse and Angie Zielinski

April 7 – 28, 2012

Dan Solberg and Jacob Tonski

May 5 – 26, 2012

Marty Weishaar and Cayla Skillin-Brauchle

June 2 – 30, 2012

Lali Khalid and Monika Laskowska

July 7 – 28, 2012

Community Outreach Exhibit: TBA

August 4 – 25, 2012

Xiaoshi Qin and Lauri Lynnxe-Murphy

September 1 – 29, 2012

Elena Harvey-Collins, Philip Spangler, and Nate Mathews

October 6 – 27, 2012

Jennifer Anable and Jeremy Stone

November 3 – 24, 2012

Courtney Kessel and Linda Diec

December 1 – 29, 2012

Small Works

Colors and Bottles is a fabulous event where you can sip some wine, create some artwork, and socialize with others. At Roy’s first Colors and Bottles art class the participants created their own version of an abstract contemporary painting. Member artist Tom Kelly guided the artists through the steps to create a piece similar to his own. After a few hours of laughing, socializing, and of course painting, the participants had a fabulous piece of art to take home with them.

By Betsy Schneider

Last week, Columbus Alive featured our Residues exhibition in their November gallery preview.  Below is the article:

“Ray Klimek and Rajorshi Ghosh take what most of us would consider trash or a ruined landscape and turn it into art. The two Ohio University assistant professors have both documented man’s effect on the areas where they grew up.

“We realized there’s a common theme of waste in both of our work,” Klimek explained. Their joint exhibition this month at ROY G BIV, “Residues,” just goes to show that nothing is wasted on a good artist.

Klimek was raised in northeastern Pennsylvania, near abandoned coal mines where he would often play. The setting has inspired Klimek to create a photo series, “Carbon/Analog,” which captures the sense of fantasy and adventure he felt there as a kid.

“What’s so fascinating is partly that it lends itself to whatever we want it to be,” Klimek said of the black mound-covered landscape. “It’s a place where you can play army, you can play cowboys and Indians, you can play anything that your imagination can come up with.”

He often stylizes the photos to resemble official NASA images or pictures of the nighttime sky.

“From a distance, it looks kind of astronomical and then you get closer up and you realize that it’s spoils sometimes,” he said of the glittering coal residue.

Ghosh, whose “Ganges” series last year at OSU’s Urban Arts Space showed video footage of items floating in the Indian river, has contributed a series of what he calls “reconfigured” communist propaganda posters found on the streets of Calcutta, his hometown. There is also a lightbox installation modeled after a broken lightbox found in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that bore an image of Egypt’s former president, Hosni Mubarak.

The centerpiece of Ghosh’s work, though, will be “Landscape with Kites,” a video installation that shows thousands of kites — birds of prey — flying over Delhi. Locals believe spirits from the city’s violent past reside on the wings of the birds.”

To see the rest of the article visit Columbus Alive at http://www.columbusalive.com/content/stories/2011/11/03/preview-november-gallery-hop.html

Columbus based corporation “ROYGBIV” has been named in a lawsuit regarding the renovation of a condo in an 11-story Ibiza building. We are ROY G BIV Gallery 501c3, and are in no way affiliated with ROYGBIV corporation, or the lawsuit for that matter. Below is a link to the summary of the suit against ROYGBIV corporation.

http://outlookcolumbus.com/2011/09/find-fraud-september-2011/

The Columbus Foundation is hosting a matching funds donation drive for local non-profits.  Increase your donation to the ROYGBIV Gallery by this Thursday, November 11th via the Big Give http://bit.ly/tbM1xc.

Every dollar you give makes a significant contribution to the gallery.  Help us stay independent with donations!

More information regarding this special event see below or the posted links.

The Big Give will give our nonprofit community an economic boost, helping a wide range of organizations that positively impact our culture and community, including the arts, education, health, human services, conservation, and animal welfare. There is an unprecedented demand for nonprofit programs and services—our diligent nonprofits deserve our support.

On November 10, from 11:00 a.m. to November 11, 11:00 a.m., the Foundation will match credit card gifts of $20 or more made to a central Ohio nonprofits that are a part of The Columbus Foundation’s PowerPhilanthropy. Columbus Foundation donors can also make a minimum grant of $250 through their Donor Advised Fund.

All donations received during The Big Give will be matched through a pro-rated portion of the final match pool—giving everyone who participates the opportunity to have a percentage of their donation(s) matched.

Please mark your calendars for this extraordinary 24 hours. Together, we can increase support for local nonprofits during their most challenging time of the year!