(TRENTON, NJ) -- The James Kearny Campus Gallery presents a solo exhibition featuring work by New Jersey based digital contemporary artist: Phillip McConnell, titled Analog Surrealism. The exhibition is curated by Photographer, Scholar, and Curator Michael Chovan-Dalton and will be on view from November 8th through December 4th, 2021. 

Analog Surrealism features sixteen new works by New Jersey based digital contemporary artist Phillip McConnell, these works will be the exploration of not only a new body of work but a new style for Phillip. This body of work juxtaposes two different mediums (photography and digital art) against each other to create something vibrant and fresh. This is a new take on the aesthetic medium of Glitch Art Phillip is used to working in. 

Glitch Art is the aesthetic of digital errors, created by corrupting the data of pictures. To create the work, a picture file is converted into text files using a basic program called Notepad ++. Using the text file within the program the data of the picture is manually manipulated by adding or subtracting color codes and by taking pieces of other pictures and blending them with each other. Once the images are distorted enough, they are combined using notepad program and the text file is exported as a JPG picture file. The pieces in the show vary in size as well as subject matter.

Phillips’s work deals with the raw data of pictures, no different than a programmer writing lines of code to create a digital platform. Phillip sees his work as alchemical in nature as he creates a new image by breaking down two different mediums to their base elements and merging them to create a single amalgamation of a picture. On your first viewing of the work, there is a lot of information to process from the meaning but to the different techniques that exist within the work. But as you examine the canvas you notice small, subtle nuances within each piece that beg the question, did I see everything the piece had to offer on first glance? 

By taking a storytelling approach in enlivening the portrait pieces with the Glitch aesthetic and infusing stagnant situations with a new sense of purpose and life. This body of work evokes a sense of vulnerability as he sets out to communicate the importance of being a black creative but as a young man. This body of work is, above all else, reflective. 

There will be an opening reception and artist talk is set for Monday, November 8, 2021, from 6:30pm-8:00pm and is open to the public. 

The James Kearny Campus Gallery is located at Mercer County Community College's Trenton Hall (137 North Broad Street) in Trenton, New Jersey.