Johnson County Community College
Press Release

College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Associate Vice President, Marketing Communications, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122

---

11/14/2008
Story by Bruce Hartman, director,Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

Op Eyes by Barry Anderson opens at the Nerman Museum

Op Eyes

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Op Eyes by Barry Anderson opens from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in the Oppenheimer New Media Gallery on the second floor of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College. The exhibition will be on view through Feb. 1, 2009. A reception with hors d’oeuvres prepared by the college’s award-winning Dining Services, refreshments and live music will accompany the opening. The reception and opening are free and open to the public.

As part of  JCCC’s ongoing integration of art into the daily lives of students and visitors, works of art were acquired during the past several years for installation in the Regnier Center. A two-story glass “cube” was designed by the building’s architect (Gould Evans Associates) to serve as an iconic element at the Regnier Center’s main entrance. The “cube” also has the capacity for large-scale projection on its towering south wall of glass.

In 2007, Kansas City-based artist Barry Anderson was commissioned to create a video that can be featured on this space. Additionally, Anderson created a version of this work for presentation in the Nerman Museum’s Oppenheimer New Media Gallery. Anderson was born in Greenville, Texas, in 1969, and holds an MFA from Indiana University and a BFA from the University of Texas, Austin. He is an associate professor of art and art history and teaches new media at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Anderson’s Op Eyes is created in part from appropriated American advertising images of the 1950s to 1970s, an era that historically represents a massive change in the cultural landscape of the country.

This period is not referenced out of a simple sense of nostalgia but rather for an historical counterpoint to our present era. Due to evolving economic, social and ethnic factors in the middle of the 20th century, our cultural homogeny began a period of erosion. Now, however, global telecommunications and corporate culture are causing a different sort of homogeny to evolve, one based on entertainment and consumerism.

Anderson's continuing interest in truly "motion pictures" relates more to the history of painting and collage (in the case of Op Eyes, specifically Pop and Op) than that of video and cinema. This is heightened by his use of motifs commonly related to trance and psychedelia such as hyper color, limitless space and looping rhythm.

The video’s central image, the eyes, act as surrogates for the cultural landscape of the campus. Their intertwined movement, which can be seen as referencing DNA strands, in the endlessly receding space of the video, are meant to both literally and figuratively draw viewers into the architecture of the structure, emphasize the purpose of the campus and reference the biotechnology component of the Regnier Center.

The Nerman Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed Monday and all JCCC holidays.

For more information, call 913-469-3000 or visit www.jccc.edu/museum.

Admission and parking are free.

###