TYLER CORBETT
tyler@tylercorbett.com
My work explores how the integration of technology into our daily lives alters our perceptions of the natural world, an interest that stems from my childhood in rural Iowa. I have many warm memories of playing outdoors in the cornfields and cow pastures, but it was also a troubled template for understanding the environment. Dangerous levels of E. coli from farm waste shut down the reservoir I swam in as a child, and I had to stay indoors on the days farmers sprayed pesticides on their crops. As I grew older, it increasingly appeared to me as an industrial landscape whose origins were not “natural” at all. In fact, it couldn’t exist without sophisticated mechanical intervention, a realization that made me distinctly aware of just how transactional humanity’s relationship with nature can be.
This led to a fascination with the ways we portray nature, particularly in visual art. From the romantic landscape paintings of Bierstadt and the Hudson River School to the mythic deserts and plains in the Westerns of John Ford and Sergio Leone to the unpopulated landscapes of April Gornik, the genre expresses our enduring desire to simulate nature, as well as the ways we're dependent not only on its physical resources, but its emotional resources too. We know that the deprivation of fresh air and sunlight has physical effects on our well-being, but how does living amid simulations of nature affect us? Is a painted landscape akin to a window? Does a potted tree “expand” the air in a room? Does driving a car to a mountaintop inspire genuine triumph?
My work uses technology to explore society’s own technological representations of nature. I consider the technology of a painting: how it presents a static image, a visual record and, through convention, impresses the importance of its content to the viewer. However, at a time when static images have been largely replaced by rapid and multi-sensory experiences, I aim to use these contemporary forms of communication in my own work.
Resume
2019 Natural Reactions to Environmental Transactions, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
2018 Expect Delays, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
2017 Fire Signs, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
Glean Portland, Bison Building, Portland, OR
City of Dreams, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
2016 FMRL, Installation Space, The Portland Building, Portland, OR
2015 This is How I'll Remember You, Stumptown Downtown, Portland, OR
Things are Looking Up!, Good Gallery, Portland, OR
2014 Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant Award, Multnomah County, OR
Domicile, Lightbox Kulturhaus, Portland, OR
Metro 14, Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR
2013 My River Runs to Thee, Lovell Showroom, Astoria, OR
Earth, Wind and Fire, Akasofu Building, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK
Finding Our Place, Alaska House Gallery, Fairbanks, AK
2012 Ephemeral Gallery Temporary Mural, Goldsmith Building, Portland, OR
2011 Big 200, People's Art of Portland Gallery, Portland, OR
2009 Hot Shot BB-Gun Range, Manor of Art, Installation, Milepost 5, Portland, OR
Big 100, Olympic Mills Commerce Center, Portland, OR
Collections
J. Michael Carroll Cancer Center, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Fairbanks, AK
Museum of the North, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
Press
2017 KATU News, http://katu.com/news/local/art-from-trash-is-anything-but-trashy-glean-art-project-finds-beauty-in-garbage
2017 Metro News, http://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/garbage-shines-glean-art-exhibit-through-aug-26
2014 PDX Magazine, http://corbettkathryn.com/pdxmag.com/archives/3537
2014 Propeller Magazine, http://www.propellermag.com/Sept2014/SutterCorbettKathrynSept14.html
2014 PDX Magazine, http://pdxmag.com/archives/article/corbett-kathryn
2013 Propeller Magazine, http://www.propellermag.com/June2013/SutterJune13.html
Education
Portland State University
B.S. Art, Painting, 2013
tyler@tylercorbett.com
My work explores how the integration of technology into our daily lives alters our perceptions of the natural world, an interest that stems from my childhood in rural Iowa. I have many warm memories of playing outdoors in the cornfields and cow pastures, but it was also a troubled template for understanding the environment. Dangerous levels of E. coli from farm waste shut down the reservoir I swam in as a child, and I had to stay indoors on the days farmers sprayed pesticides on their crops. As I grew older, it increasingly appeared to me as an industrial landscape whose origins were not “natural” at all. In fact, it couldn’t exist without sophisticated mechanical intervention, a realization that made me distinctly aware of just how transactional humanity’s relationship with nature can be.
This led to a fascination with the ways we portray nature, particularly in visual art. From the romantic landscape paintings of Bierstadt and the Hudson River School to the mythic deserts and plains in the Westerns of John Ford and Sergio Leone to the unpopulated landscapes of April Gornik, the genre expresses our enduring desire to simulate nature, as well as the ways we're dependent not only on its physical resources, but its emotional resources too. We know that the deprivation of fresh air and sunlight has physical effects on our well-being, but how does living amid simulations of nature affect us? Is a painted landscape akin to a window? Does a potted tree “expand” the air in a room? Does driving a car to a mountaintop inspire genuine triumph?
My work uses technology to explore society’s own technological representations of nature. I consider the technology of a painting: how it presents a static image, a visual record and, through convention, impresses the importance of its content to the viewer. However, at a time when static images have been largely replaced by rapid and multi-sensory experiences, I aim to use these contemporary forms of communication in my own work.
Resume
2019 Natural Reactions to Environmental Transactions, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
2018 Expect Delays, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
2017 Fire Signs, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
Glean Portland, Bison Building, Portland, OR
City of Dreams, UnionKnott Gallery, Portland, OR
2016 FMRL, Installation Space, The Portland Building, Portland, OR
2015 This is How I'll Remember You, Stumptown Downtown, Portland, OR
Things are Looking Up!, Good Gallery, Portland, OR
2014 Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant Award, Multnomah County, OR
Domicile, Lightbox Kulturhaus, Portland, OR
Metro 14, Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR
2013 My River Runs to Thee, Lovell Showroom, Astoria, OR
Earth, Wind and Fire, Akasofu Building, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK
Finding Our Place, Alaska House Gallery, Fairbanks, AK
2012 Ephemeral Gallery Temporary Mural, Goldsmith Building, Portland, OR
2011 Big 200, People's Art of Portland Gallery, Portland, OR
2009 Hot Shot BB-Gun Range, Manor of Art, Installation, Milepost 5, Portland, OR
Big 100, Olympic Mills Commerce Center, Portland, OR
Collections
J. Michael Carroll Cancer Center, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Fairbanks, AK
Museum of the North, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
Press
2017 KATU News, http://katu.com/news/local/art-from-trash-is-anything-but-trashy-glean-art-project-finds-beauty-in-garbage
2017 Metro News, http://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/garbage-shines-glean-art-exhibit-through-aug-26
2014 PDX Magazine, http://corbettkathryn.com/pdxmag.com/archives/3537
2014 Propeller Magazine, http://www.propellermag.com/Sept2014/SutterCorbettKathrynSept14.html
2014 PDX Magazine, http://pdxmag.com/archives/article/corbett-kathryn
2013 Propeller Magazine, http://www.propellermag.com/June2013/SutterJune13.html
Education
Portland State University
B.S. Art, Painting, 2013