During his 30-year-career in the Bay Area, Kal Spelletich has been a pivotal figure in the machine art and robotics community. He frequently collaborates with scientists, engineers, musicians and audiences to realize projects. His machines address the poetic nature of technology, scientific discovery and metaphorically illustrate how, just as movement, light and sound waves can be sent into the world, so also can ideas and emotions radiate out, with the potential for activating positive change.
Spelletich builds interactive sculptures from the same elements of technology, hardware and software, used in everyday consumer, industrial, and military devices. However, he subverts the original intended use and breaks the barrier of exclusive access. Viewed from our contemporary vantage point that is immersed in functional technologies, his sculptures seem nonsensical. They are poetic and not meant for a proscribed use or to achieve commercial, monetized goals.
Spelletich raises open ended questions about the dominant economic producers of technology, the interplay of technology and spirituality, the role of the collective in capitalism, and economic and educational privilege. His work is generated from the belief that ultimately humanity prevails over technology.
Spelletich has exhibited at the deYoung Museum, SFMOMA, and the Exploratorium in San Francisco; Deitch Projects and the Knitting Factory in New York; and in venues in Germany, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Holland, France, Spain, India and Africa. He has been the subject of press in the New York Times and on PBS, holds an undergraduate art degree from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery.
Photos and press release for this artist.
Residency: February 2019 - May 2019
Art Exhibition: Friday, May 17 & Saturday, May 18 & Tuesday, May 21