{"id":66723,"date":"2012-10-05T08:11:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T12:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=66723"},"modified":"2012-10-26T10:48:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T14:48:02","slug":"metropolitan-museum-of-art-exhibits-work-by-mfa-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/10\/metropolitan-museum-of-art-exhibits-work-by-mfa-graduate\/","title":{"rendered":"Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibits Work by MFA Graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
’49 States,’ created by Matthew Jensen ’08 MFA, is part of a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City titled ‘After Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age.’ (Photo courtesy of Matthew Jensen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a graduate student in the School of Fine Arts, Matthew Jensen \u201908 MFA continued to develop his work as a conceptual landscape artist, combining photography with collecting objects and rigorous exploration. In 2008, he stumbled upon something he thought would be \u201ca great winter project.\u201d He began to take a tour of the United States from his studio chair using Google Street View.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only in a few states then, where you could do this magical thing of dropping a little yellow man to see what the street looks like,\u201d Jensen recalls. \u201cI got lost in these images, strangely romantic despite strange colors and technological origins.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he collected images of America\u2019s large and small communities from Google, Jensen began to work with computer software to change the color and contrast on the panoramic photos to create \u201cThe 49 States,\u201d which is now part of an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City titled \u201cAfter Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age,\u201d which runs through May 27, 2013.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
’49 States,’ created by Matthew Jensen ’08 MFA, on display\u00a0 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (Photo courtesy of Matthew Jensen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Museum purchased \u201cThe 49 States\u201d for its permanent collection in 2010 through its Vital Purchase Funds program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a visually stunning work that thoughtfully addresses some of the ways in which digital technology is transforming our experience of the world,\u201d says Mia Fineman, the Metropolitan Museum curator who acquired the work. \u201cThat Jensen used Photoshop to select, frame, and flatten each of the 49 images culled from Google Street View made the piece a perfect choice for the exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jensen, who continues to create new works as he teaches classes in digital photo imaging at The New School in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, says that having one of his prominent works purchased and exhibited by a major art institution is \u201cexciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of hard to sum it up. I try not to think too much about it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest thing, obviously, that\u2019s happened to me. It\u2019s what everybody hopes for \u2013 an audience for the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jensen, a native of Killingly, Conn., has exhibited his work in Connecticut, New Jersey, and in several New York galleries, drawing the kind of critical attention and praise that has led to profiles in The New York Times<\/em> and The New Yorker<\/em> magazine. He also has earned a prestigious MacDowell Fellowship and grants from the New York State Senate and the Manhattan Community Arts Fund for his landscape photography.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Utah, from ’49 States.’ (Photo courtesy of Matthew Jensen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Indiana, from ’49 States.’ (Photo courtesy of Matthew Jensen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The artist says he worked at a methodical pace in creating \u201cThe 49 States,\u201d going from west coast to east coast. Viewing the images, Jensen says he could seek out different towns within a state by looking at satellite views and following railroad tracks. By studying the light in each photo, he could determine the time of day the image was taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome states had very little to see, others had more,\u201d he says. \u201cEach picture is a composite of a number of pictures of a single scene. For me it was important that whoever was looking at the series could see the connections to the history of landscape photography, while also experiencing something beautiful and local in each image. That\u2019s kind of the fun part about it; it makes it public. People see the imagery and find familiarity in some of the images, and then they go to find \u2018their\u2019 state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jensen has explored various parts of Connecticut and New York City in creating his other landscape works, collecting objects from various locations throughout his travels to develop another work he is calling \u201cHomage to the American Place,\u201d which he describes as \u201cthe analog response to \u2018The 49 States.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He calls \u201cHomage to the American Place\u201d a \u201cparticipant-based work\u201d that involves more than 1,000 glass shards with the name of a different small town in the United States affixed to the back of each piece. Willing participants will each receive a glass shard in order to travel to the particular town on the glass piece within three years and send proof of their visit to a specified address. Jensen says all of the shards were excavated from sites next to factories in northeast Connecticut that were constructed during the period of the nation\u2019s Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a response to the fact that so much has changed in the way people experience landscape, and nothing much can be done about it,\u201d he says, noting that he hopes to begin putting \u201cHomage to the American Place\u201d into motion sometime this fall.<\/p>\n

In addition to creating his artwork and teaching, Jensen has also entered the art world as a curator in a novel way \u2013 selecting works by New York City artists to hang in the corridors of a 19-story hotel in Manhattan, The James in SoHo. He was brought into the project by one of the hotel directors, who saw an exhibition of his project, \u201cNowhere in Manhattan,\u201d photos of New York\u2019s wilderness landscapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the artists have their own corridor, and the work was purchased,\u201d Jensen says. \u201cThey are young artists and for some of them it was their first work sold. It\u2019s a permanent display of their work. Many of the artists have brought people there [to the hotel] to see their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about Matthew Jensen\u2019s artwork, go to his website, http:\/\/jensen-projects.com<\/a>. To learn more about \u201cAfter Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age,\u201d go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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