Can’t Touch This is a new exhibition on display at Studio Sixty Six until March 9. Featuring work by Brandon A. Dalmer of Montreal, and new art by local Ottawa artist Michael Schreier, the two are connected by mutual love for digital technology.
All the works combine futuristic and comprehensive digital processing with traditional art techniques, including acrylic painting and Renaissance chiaroscuro (the balance in contrast of light and dark that is famous in Rembrandt’s work). We spoke with both artists to learn more about this fascinating blend of then and now.
Brandon A. Dalmer is a Canadian painter who has been exhibiting and working professionally since 2007. He has a BFA from the Alberta University of the Arts and a MFA from Concordia University in Montreal.
Every work begins with custom coding. But Dalmer’s passion for tech in art began in his childhood.
“I used to make a lot of miniature dioramas,” explains Dalmer, “Eventually, I used controllers, switches, soldering, and coding. My grandfather was an electrical engineer who taught me how to take things apart. He helped me build structures for my shows and his passion for tinkering was the genesis.”
Dalmer continued coding, getting better and better at it. With an undergrad specializing in figurative art, he was bored with the age-old techniques and wanted to experiment.
Processing code in JavaScript, he created one of the works on display with vector data-bending. “I wrote the program myself that manipulates the points that then get plotted. I create rapid prototypes, print the vinyl stencils of the results, and paint on top with acrylic.” Existing nodes within the files are modified to visualize change. The vectors are the code of the image.
Brandon A. Dalmer. BEND_93. Acrylic on pane. 30 x 24 in. Unframed. 2019.
For this next piece, Dalmer printed every tiny number and then painted them by hand, a process which took many months.
“Considered the first oil self-portrait, Jan van Eyck popularized and perfected oil painting,” explains Dalmer of his image choice, “I wanted to reference how far painting has come, as an homage to the history of painting. My process is based on the probe that was sent to Mars—the first digital image created in orbit in 1965. The NASA/JPL team printed all the raw pixel numbers on sheets of paper and people hand-coloured it with pastels from a nearby art supplies store. It’s the perfect poetic idea of the human and machine collaboration.”
This work reverse engineers this process—a digital image is parsed into brightness values from zero to 255 and then each pixel is meticulously hand-painted with custom-mixed paint.
Brandon A. Dalmer. AS IC AN. Acrylic on canvas over panel. 48 x 72 in. Unframed. 2023.
Dalmer has been obsessed with space from childhood. It’s no wonder then he acquired a 98 per cent chemically-accurate reproduction of Mars soil for this next art piece. “I’m exploring materiality in paint. Mars has an allure of a utopia, like going there will fix all our problems. It’s the most expensive burning man,” says Dalmer.
Next, he wants to create a pigment from the Mars soil sample and the Mount Saint Helen volcano ashes his great-grandmother gifted him.
Brandon A. Dalmer, Sample Return [martian regolith]. Readymade with soldering helping hand, cocaine alien head baggy, gold plated bump key, and pigment in a 6 in. bell jar. 6 x 6 x 12 in
2024. Edition of 8.
Michael Schreier is a professional artist who has been creating for decades. His works are represented in both public and private collections, from the National Gallery of Canada to the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Schreier’s work for Can’t Touch This features asemic (meaningless) writing, the application of chiaroscuro, and the layering of physical and digital elements to understand the rendering of human thought.
Michael Schreier. Liquid Words. From the Stone Letters series. Hahnemühle gloss photo paper with matte laminate, mounted on aluminum panel. 48 x 62 in. 2024. Edition of 3.
“My work begins with the urgency to make an image about something,” explains Schreier, “I started off in analog and then got into digital. With digital tech you can enter into a new way of seeing and thinking about things—it’s not just representation.”
Schreier used to teach a course in sound and technology, and for an hour in every class, he played new sounds for his students to “tune their ears.” This new way of working with digital technology is a way for the artist to slow down and tune into the profound subtleties of understanding.
“When I was a young lad, I saw a painting at the National Gallery As The Old Sing, So the Young Pipe by Flemish artist Jacob Joardaens,” says Schreier, “It was the first time I was struck by a quality of light. I saw it in 1964 and I go back every Thursday to look at it. It’s still talking to me on so many levels. It’s not about cause, effect, and resolution, but about subtlety.”
Michael Schreier. The Surfacing Note. From the Stone Letters series. Hahnemühle gloss photo paper with matte laminate, mounted on aluminum panel. 48 x 62 in. 2024. Edition of 3.
Schreier developed his own process to infuse the luminescence of chiaroscuro into his work. He begins with a papyrus sketchbook, then creates asemic calligraphy. The tracing paper is scanned into Photoshop and levels of surfaces are created. Then, the artist prints a large format photo.
It’s both a poetic and a philosophical expression. As a young kid, Schreier moved from Vienna to Canada and had to learn a new language. This asemic writing represents the passage of time, not understanding a new language, and what it means to leave home and learn something new. “This process of passage needs to be confirmed,” adds Schreier, “To allow you to experience and celebrate it without dictating. Your spirit is in one place, going to another.”
Michael Schreier. Filigreed in Song. From the Stone Letters series. Hahnemühle gloss photo paper with matte laminate, mounted on aluminum panel. 48 x 62 in. 2024. Edition of 3.
