MTA panoramic view -- and click here for a video tour

	MTA is Oregon's new 501(c)(3) non-profit exhibition space for both technologically-themed art and hi-tech industrial products having an irresistable visual appeal -- or in short, art as industry !!! Located in the historic Miner Building at 132 E Broadway in Eugene, and with a lobby exhibition area generously provided by its owners, the museum is currently providing tours by appointment -- see below for details.
	Artist Exhibitors

		[Note: the artist works referenced hereunder are representative and not necessarily those currently on display at the museum.]
		Rob Bolman helped pioneer green building throughout the 90s, and he has this to say about our present situation: "The more word thought about it, the more I have come to see just how utterly unsustainable modern industrialized civilization is. Concrete is the second most widely used substance on Earth (after water) and responsible for five percent of greenhouse gases. I see landfills as a sort of culmination of the Big Bang. Creation sprang into existence, biodiversity flourished, civilization brought us a dizzying array of material diversity and then it all just sort of ends up at the dump. Future archeologists will puzzle, 'These people made many things and then threw them away...' My art is an exploration of this strange and fleeting moment in history."
		Paul Brown is a noted British/Australian computer art pioneer who has been a force in alogrithmically-generated graphics since the mid 1970s. His work is to be found in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; he has participated in the Venice Biennale and in shows at the Tate Modern and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA; and his work is as well represented in public, corporate and private collections in Australia, Asia, Europe, Russia and the USA. He has also had a distinguished career as an academician and administrator, as per his chairmanship of the British Computer Arts Society; and he is this year's recipient of the ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art.
		Steve La Riccia, drawing upon an extraordinary affinity for the technological materials of the 19th and 20th centuries, has been amazing the public for forty years. He produced, beginning in the early 1980s, a significant body of work with his SX-70 manipulations -- wherein a stylus is rubbed over the still-developing print which has just been ejected from the hi-tech Polaroid camera -- and has achieved with it many beautiful and evocative results, as with his 1996 Nude with Hats; but when that technology was discontinued circa 2010, he made the leap to hyperspace with his interactive assemblages of steam-age and space-age components, and one of which, Teller's Armageddon, has been the subject of our inaugural exhibit in the Miner Building lobby.
		Barbora Bakalarova is originally from Prague, but her true unfolding as an artist belongs in the Pacific Northwest, where she moved in the 1990s and where she has found a lasting creative resonance. Primarily a photographer, her work in that medium draws upon a number of non- traditional techniques that she has developed through creative play and experiment. Her work is constantly evolving, as she doesn't feel confined by any particular technique, trend, taboo or subject matter. Besides photography, she is exploring other mediums, including three dimensional arrangements.
		Don Myers has the following to say about his work as a photographer -- this the first modern techno art, and which has often involved, in Don's case, state-of-the-art infrared technology: "Through our journey in life there is struggle and reward. I try to make sense of it all by taking photos. I'm fascinated by the people and places I encounter along my journey and try to document it in interesting ways. I began my photo journey in Vietnam over fifty years ago and have been documenting my journey ever since. I studied photojournalism at Arizona State University and worked for various newspapers and magazines. Photography is a passion that rewards you throughout your life."
		Joe Mross received his degree in 1993 from the University of Oregon in Fine and Applied Arts with an emphasis on metalsmithing and printmaking. His firm, Archive Designs, has since earned a reputation as one of the leading metal design and fabrication studios in the United States, and its work has been featured in numerous books and magazines over the years. Among many other career highlights, he received in 2014 a coveted Burning Man honorarium for his installation Lost Nomads of Vulcania, a 21' tall gypsy vardo steam walker; and more recently, in 2022, his firm was selected to design and fabricate the marvelous stage machinery for the Eugene Ballet's production of Taming of the Shrew.
		Max Rink shares this background: "I have been educated primarily by people, lands and cities in England -- where I was born -- and in California, South America and Oregon. Having worked as a bicycle mechanic, classic auto mechanic, tech support guy, back-to-the- lander, and househusband/caregiver, I began sculpting full-time in my mid-fifties. Currently, my studio is located in farmland just outside Eugene. Here I straddle directly a boundary between the natural and industrial worlds -- in one moment I may witness frogs in a remnant wetland, in the next, metal being worked in any of its possible states. Thus, I keep exploring both realms, the places where they meet, and the question of whether they can ever be reconciled in a healthy, planet-wide way."

Corporate Exhibitors

		MTA is seeking, and will be delighted to receive, proposals from Oregon companies having a hi-tech industrial product or component of irresistible visual appeal, and therefore an ideal subject for one of our ongoing series of no cost monthly exhibits in the lobby of the Miner Building.

News and Events

Panoramic view of MTA on the evening of its first ArtWalk !!!

		The Artwalk on Friday, December 1st, will mark the first time that MTA will be included in this quite noteworthy event on the monthly Eugene calendar !!! With many thanks, therefore, to the sponsoring Lane Arts Council, we note, first, that Glenn Smith's kinetic Cyberman 2021 will be the featured display in the lobby of the Miner Building, and second, that he will be giving, at 7 in the evening, a very brief illustrated presentation on the history of Art + Technology -- and why this perpetual cross-fertilization should encourage us to view our future as a society with a healthy dose of optimism. And finally this note: Rob Bolman's space-invading and thought-provoking "Money Tree" will be the new work on display in Suite 212 -- and you have never before seen plumbing like this !!!
		Noted British computer art pioneer Paul Brown, the recipient of this year's ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art, is donating reproductions of two of his historic prints, as well as a time-based work, to the museum in conjunction with its grand opening during Eugene's Visual Arts Week, October 6-15. A reception will be held at 7 PM on the evening of Thursday, October 5th for supporters of the museum, and to be followed on Saturday, October 7th by a public, 1 PM to 5 PM open house. MTA is located in Suite 212 of the historic Miner Building at 132 E Broadway; and as an additional exhibition space, its owners are generously making available their wonderful period front lobby, and where Steve La Riccia's Babbage/Lovelace's Machination will be on display for the entire month of October.
		The Eugene Weekly has just published a charming and informative article about our launch !!! By intern reporter Alicia Santiago, Art Born of Industry (11 August 2023) focuses on co-founder Steve La Riccia's transition from being the long-time mastermind behind the New Zone Gallery to museum impresario. As per its title, the article also highlights our outreach to Oregon's business and industrial communities.

Further Information

Background:		In response to what French art historian Juliette Bessette has happily described as "a vast expansion of the creative sphere" represented by our current technological landscape, long-time Eugene artist and art promoter Steve La Riccia and Eugene newcomer Glenn Smith recently launched a 501(c)(3) non-profit Museum of Techno Art. The museum plans to exhibit artists whose work is technologically themed; and in complementary fashion, MTA will also be exhibiting hi- tech industrial products having significant artistic content. MTA will thus serve as an exhibition space for both Oregon's artistic and business communities -- or in short, "art as industry" !!!

Board of Directors:

Steve La Riccia, President steamworkslabs@centurylink.net (541) 517-1488 Joseph Mross, Member at large

Tours:

Please get in touch with us to schedule a tour. At present, we occupy a small, two-room upstairs space -- Suite 212 -- but we invite you to help us grow!

Donations:

We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit; all of our staff work is voluntary; we are currently seeking funding to expand our exhibit space; and all donations will be so utilitized. Please make checks payable to the Museum of Techno Art c/o OCCU.