David Denton and Adam Rowe: Hidden Worlds

January 3-31, 2025
David Denton and Adam Rowe: Hidden Worlds
Opening reception: Friday, January 3, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; closed Monday, January 20

“Hidden Worlds” is a new exhibition based on the paper presented at Bridges 2023 and the Knoxville American Marketing Association conference, “Surface-tiling Curves.” The subject is the application of a space-filling curve segment to the faces of regular polyhedra. The work represents real-world examples of time slices in the iterative process of these curves as sculpture and print. Each piece exists as snapshot along the way from one to two dimensions. Glimpsing into these hidden worlds is a way of looking deeper without looking closer.

David Denton: Biography
David Denton, originally from Knoxville, spent forty years practicing architecture in California. Before starting his own design practice in 2000 he was the Design Director of San Francisco architectural firm Whisler Patri, and Managing Principal for the renowned architecture firm Frank Gehry and Associates in Los Angeles. In 2001 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Not knowing how quickly it would progress, he started planning for the future seeking a way to continue to participate in the design world. Then he discovered the Virtual Reality platform Second Life. He knew immediately that the Virtual World was his future path.
His early work in the Virtual World was featured in such publications as Architectural Record and The New York Times. His early designs were selected to be included in the archives of the Stanford University Library and the US Library of Congress. He was an early adapter of the use of Virtual Reality in architectural design. He developed a method for collaborating in the Virtual World with Egyptian architects using the Second Life platform to design a shopping center project in Cairo, Egypt. He went on to create a collaboration project funded by the US State Department bringing together American and Egyptian architecture students in the Virtual World. The project was so successful that the State Department brought the Egyptian students to make presentations in Washington. He has produced Virtual Reality designs in the areas of set design, trade show exhibits, experimental teaching tools, exhibition spaces, urban design, architectural design, videos, album covers, and business spaces. It was discovered several years ago that many people with Parkinson’s disease experience a surge in creativity. David is one who has had this experience and has written about it as well as given a Ted Talk at UT. He also organized an exhibition at the downtown Emporium Gallery of the work of people with Parkinson’s disease who have experienced and benefited from this phenomenon.
When he and his wife decided to retire from Los Angeles, they came to Knoxville being intrigued with the renaissance of downtown and now live above the Tennessee Theatre in the Burwell Building.

David Denton: Artist Statement
There are hidden worlds all around us that most people never see even though they are in plain view. David Denton has been experimenting with and producing digital art for the last 12 years. He is a retired architect, having spent most of his career in California. He has been exploring the possibilities of creating art in the Virtual World (Second Life) platform. Much of this work on display is photographs of his 3D constructions in the Virtual World and then manipulated in Photoshop or initiated with a photograph he has taken and then also altered in Photoshop. Most of his recent work has been based on photographs taken in his immediate surroundings. His world has become rather small due to Parkinson’s disease which prevents him from driving or walking long distance. He finds photographing simple things such as kitchen utensils, shadows on hardwood floors or reflections in a glass dish opens whole new worlds, no longer hidden.

www.facebook.com/david.denton.583

About Adam Rowe: Making a new artwork begins with a question I don’t immediately know the answer to. It ends with the artwork as proof that the answer I came up with is true. The middle part, figuring it out, is often more time consuming than shaping the actual piece, although it is the part I enjoy the most. After studying graphic design and working in this field for several years, my desire to take the principles of design and apply them to media other than paper or the screen has steadily increased. Most of my work is “math art,” although I am hesitant to claim I know much math.

www.adamrowe.com | Instagram @adam.rowe.art