Opening Receptions: Lee Montgomery, "Transformers Transformed" and Carm

Join us as we help kick off PhotoSummer and New Media New Mexico with the opening receptions for two solo exhibitions of appropriated, abstracted re-mixes in digital and physical form: Lee Montgomery's "Transformers Transformed" and Carmelo Midili's "Sogno (Dream)." Artist talk with Lee Montgomery at 5pm. "Transformers Transformed" is an exhibition of images from Lee Montgomery's series of abstracted digital video remixes created from a found bootleg copy of the movie "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" (described by the directors as somewhat of a failure as a film). Through this series, Montgomery explores our cultural obsession with resolution, as well as an interrogation of fair use policy and copyright law. "Sogno (Dream)" is an exhibition featuring Carmelo Midili's mixed media sculptural installations made of discarded paintings he collected from New York City art school dumpsters over the last several years. The works stem from Midili's interest in the practice of recycling other artist's work and the concept of failure -- as artists and as humans -- as a necessity for growth. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Lee Montgomery is an Assistant Professor of Electronic Art in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico where he has served as the Director of the International Collaborative Arts Program, which he established in 2011. He has a B.A. in Film from Bard College, and an MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. He has had numerous shows and residencies in the US and internationally with the collaborative Neighborhood Public Radio(NPR) which he founded in 2004. NPR has participated in residencies, performances and exhibitions internationally and at prestigious institutions in the United States including the Los Angeles MOCA and the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Montgomery continues to work on collaborative projects where he frequently includes his students. His other solo projects feature experiments with circuit bending, drone flying and construction, and various forms of wireless transmission. Carmelo Midili is an artist from Italy who moved from New York City to Albuquerque in 2014. He studied at the Polytechnic University of Torino, Italy where he acquired a degree in Civil Engineering. After a brief profession as an engineer, Midili decided that his heart laid elsewhere, and made the decision to leave engineering and to turn to the art world. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy and at The Art Students League of New York in New York City. Midili's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He has been awarded residency fellowships at Teton Artlab, Jackson Hole, WY, OBRAS Foundation, Estremoz, Portugal, SÍM, Reykjavík, Iceland, Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, Germany, Weir Farm Art Center, Wilton, CT, Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk, NY, Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, Sculpture Space in Utica, NY, and Chashama Studio Program in Brooklyn, NY. He has also been awarded the Xavier Gonzales Travel Grant, the Nessa Cohen Grant and a 2011­-2012 Pollock­ Krasner Foundation Grant.