Pattern: Follow the Rules

Pattern: Follow the Rules was a group exhibition that redefined and reimagined the terms pattern and decoration. To create the work, each of the artists began with a system or set of rules (mechanical, technological, digital or otherwise) and through repetitive action, created objects that are rigorous in their optical repetition. The artists generated forms using a framework more like a mathematical or computer pattern rather than a decorative visual process. The resulting compositions are highly decorative, visually dynamic, and spectacularly patterned in the traditional sense of the term. The implied limits of artistic choice in these works do not, however, hinder creativity. Rather, the reliance on a predetermined system of production creates a sense of potential endlessness, posing questions about the distance between reality and visual illusion. Regardless of the mode of making or the content within the form, each work in the exhibition asks us to reevaluate the way we see and experience the spaces we are in, the objects we confront and the relationship between vision and perception.

The exhibition included artwork by Walead Beshty (b. 1976, London), Teresita Fernández (b. 1968, Miami), Mark Grotjahn (b. 1968, Pasadena, California), Zilvinas Kempinas (b. 1969, Plunge, Lithuania), Jason Middlebrook (b. 1975, Jackson, Michigan), Mai-Thu Perret (b. 1976, Geneva, Switzerland), Ara Peterson (b. 1973, Boston, Massachusetts), Hugh Scott-Douglas (b. 1988, Cambridge, United Kingdom), Alyson Shotz (b. 1964, Glendale, Arizona), Rudolf Stingel (b. 1956, Murano, Italy), Tam Van Tran (b. 1966, Kon Tum Province, Vietnam), Garth Weiser (b. 1979, Helena, Montana), Pae White (b. 1963, Pasadena, California), and Christopher Wool (b. 1955, Chicago).