“Digital Breath” Artist Talk

Join us for the first of two conversations with the participating artists in the current exhibition Digital Breath: Video and Sound Art in the Age of Global Connectivity, guest curated by multimedia artist Brian C. O’Malley.

Steven Subotnick, Andrea Pérez Bessin, and Daniel O’Neill will join Brian to discuss their individual explorations of the theme “breath” during this other-worldly time of the pandemic.  Through this lens, each Digital Breath artist has created a compelling and thought provoking response that asks us to consider human connection, and disconnection.

Talk will be delivered Live on Zoom, and link will be sent directly to registrants on the day before the talk.

Steven Subotnick
Steven Subotnick is an internationally acclaimed experimental animation filmmaker.  His films have screened in festivals, galleries, museums, and curated shows around the world and have received many awards.  Steven’s work uses varied imagery – from cartoon to pure textural abstraction, unusual editing techniques, and carefully structured sound design to convey a deeply personal aesthetic experience to viewers.

Andrea Pérez Bessin
Andrea Pérez Bessin (b. San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an artist and Studio Art MFA candidate at the University of Connecticut. Their work focuses on syncretic amalgams and fictitious figures of devotion as a way to speak about the instability of gender through the fragmentation of the body. They received their BFA in Studio Art from Rhode Island College and a BA in Biology from Brown University. Andrea currently lives and works in Newport, RI.

Daniel O’Neill
Daniel O’Neill’s artwork takes inspiration from the long history of images built into architecture for decoration and to project the power of the state and religious entities. He has researched how artists in Rome, Italy have used mosaic and fresco to create narrative and propaganda. This research led to video installations, murals and other public art projects, several of which are supported by The Avenue Concept, an organization which nurtures and supports public art ecosystems. O’Neill grew up in Rhode Island and teaches art and design at Community College of Rhode Island.

Brian C. O’Malley, Guest Curator
Brian C. O’Malley is a multimedia artist who lives and works in Greenville, RI. Brian has shown his short films in Greece, Russia, Chile, Canada, Switzerland, France, Venezuela, Uruguay, and all over the United States. In 2016 Brian received a Fellowship in Film & Video from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts. He has also received fellowships to attend  artist residencies at Ragdale Foundation, Brush Creek Foundation, Playa, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Brian is the curator of RIIA shorts 2020 (Rhode Island Independent Animators), a series of live screenings of short animated films, shown around the state of Rhode Island.  The screenings started at the Jamestown Arts Center in February of 2020, but was unfortunately cut short in March because of the Covid Pandemic. Brian hopes to resume screenings of RIIA shorts in 2021.