Roman Verostko and the Cloud of Unknowing: A Retrospective Exhibition 

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Main and Concourse Galleries
Opening Reception: Friday, January 25, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Tuesday, February 19, 1:00-2:00 p.m., Auditorium 150. Featuring Roman Verostko, Grant D. Taylor, and Christiane Paul in conversation with Steve Dietz.

Roman Verostko (born 1929), an emeritus professor at MCAD who taught for twenty-six years and served in numerous administrative capacities, is an internationally-recognized key figure in the development of generative, algorithmic art. Unlike many of his contemporaries who came from engineering and computer science backgrounds, Verostko was a Benectine monk at St. Vincent Archabbey and a professionally-trained painter and scholar well-versed in the history of art, philosophy, mathematics, and theology.
The retrospective exhibition includes over sixty original works by Verostko, encompassing his pre-algorist work, pen and brush plotter drawings, early screen/video pieces, electronic machines, mural projects, artist books, and newer editioned prints. One of the artist's pen plotters will be featured, as will selections from his archives of detailed notes, equations, and codes. Rather than a strict chronological retrospective, the exhibition will be organized around major themes that appear throughout Verostko's work, such as his search for pure form, his interest in mathematical logic, his merging of eastern and western aesthetics and philosophy, and his understanding of his home "Pathway Studio" as a modern day electronic scriptorium.
A full-color exhibition catalogue will accompany the retrospective, designed by MCAD alums Michael and Suzanne Welch of Abzorb Design, and features three essays by leading scholars Christiane Paul (Professor in the School of Media Studies at The New School), Grant D. Taylor (Associate Professor of Art History at Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania) and Bruce Wands (Director, New York Digital Salon and former Chair of the MFA Computer Art Department at the School of Visual Arts). While the exhibition is on view, Christiane Paul and Grant D. Taylor will participate in a panel discussion moderated by Steve Dietz (new media curator and founder of NorthernLights.mn) highlighting Verostko's significant contributions to the field of digital arts.
Verostko has received significant recognition from organizations that have supported the development of digital art, including a 1993 honorary mention for the Prix Ars Electronica, a 1994 Golden Plotter first prize, a 1995 Recommendatory Prize from ARTEC, and the 2009 SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement. Over the course of his career, Verostko's work has appeared in over a hundred exhibitions nationally and internationally, and to date, he has twenty-two published articles on subjects ranging from abstract liturgical art to algorithmic and epigenetic art. His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Block Museum at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL; Spalding University in Louisville, KY; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Victoria & Albert Museum in London; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The artist has been included in the books Digital Pioneers (2009), The Algorithmic Revolution (2005), Code: The Language of Our Time (2003), and Genetic Art-Artificial Life (1993). In addition, he was featured in Lynn Gamwell's Mathematics in Art: A Cultural History (2015). He also figures prominently in Grant D. Taylor's book When the Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art (2014) and in a related exhibition organized by Taylor, The American Algorists: Linear Sublime. Most recently, his work was included in the summer 2017 Venice exhibition Algorithmic Signs, curated by Francesca Franco.
This exhibition has been generously supported by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation with additional funding by David E. Moore.