2017 Exhibition

Orbit

4. Orbit

The Michigan Science Center

Orbit is the depiction of the celestial mechanics of a planet spinning through its year. Various trees with their leaves and flowers are blown by turbulent winds conveying the passage of time. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter form the year.

Artist Information

Jennifer Steinkamp

Jennifer Steinkamp

Jennifer Steinkamp (b. 1958, Denver, CO; lives and works in Los Angeles) uses 3-D computer animation and new media to create video installations that activate architectural space and alter phenomenological perception. She designs and digitally simulates movement of organic and abstract forms—trees, flowers. Her works are displayed as site-specific projections that amplify the architectural setting by blurring the boundary between real and illusionistic space. Time plays a significant role in Steinkamp’s work, which often depicts cyclical occurrences such as changing seasons and life cycles.

Steinkamp received her BFA and MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California in 1989 and 1991 respectively, and also received an honorary PhD in 2011. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at Portland Art Museum, OR (2017, forthcoming); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2016, 2011); McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX (2016); Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (2014, 2012); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO (2013); the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE (2013); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2009); Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2008); and San Jose Museum of Contemporary Art, CA (2006), among others.