Shirley Steele
About the Artist
I work in creative coding, animation, print-making, and sometimes, a little paint. My artwork explores concepts in language and technology, inspired by my love of language and my experience as a research scientist in computer speech. My work is a visual exploration of verbal ideas.
Visual motifs that turn up in my work include ancient writing systems like hieroglyphics and runes, contemporary memes like power-up buttons and emojis, and modern writing systems made of disparate graphemes and signs, which nonetheless express the same ideas. I am interested in how language makes thinking possible, in whether the structure of thought is influenced by the use of a particular language, and in how thinking is influenced by interaction with technology. Visual investigation of these abstract questions yields unique insights, and also expands the very nature of art.
My website is http://www.steelestudio.com
photo by Max Yawney
Selected Exhibition
Video:
2019 Tiny/Massive, lights festival, Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik, Iceland
2015 Miami Mix, Projects Gallery, Miami, FL
2014 Electric Fields-Madrid, #programalaplaza, animation, façade at MediaLab-Prado, Madrid
2013 Art in the Air, animation, PECO Crown Lights, 27-story Philadelphia Electric Co. building, Philadelphia
2010 Art in the Air, animation, PECO Crown Lights, 27-story Philadelphia Electric Co. building, Philadelphia
Installation/Digital prints:
2019 Hello World, Gerogetown Arts Center, Georgetown TX
2018 Cloud Storage, Kerr Arts and Cultural Center, Kerrville, TX
2017 Cloud Storage: Memes & Graphemes, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY
Digital Prints:
2014 Hand and Machine, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Projects Gallery, Aqua Fine Art Fair at Art Basel Miami, Miami, FL
2013 Projects Gallery, Houston Fine Art Fair, Houston, TX
2013 TwelveXTwelve, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Alumni Gallery, Philadelphia
Art Education
ART EDUCATION
1994-1998 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (painting, printmaking)
1986-1990 Art Students’ League, New York, NY (painting, drawing)
Scientific Education and Experience
SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
1987-1994 Natural Language Processing Group, Unisys Corporation, Paoli, PA
1985-1987 Acoustics Research, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
1980-1985 Speech Research Group, Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX
1985 Ph.D., Brain and Language, University of Texas at Dallas
Mixed Media
These unique hand-painted/digital prints are delivered with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist and the gallery. For delivery outside the U.S. please contact the Project at the email or phone below.
