Gabrielle Ondine Mertz

Visual Description: A pigment painting on paper, sized 36 x 24 inches in portrait orientation, depicting a layered series of related posts from TikTok. Multiple overlapping, semi-transparent images of people (Jalaiah Harmon and Charli D'Amelio) are dancing, smiling, and posing for the camera while doing the Renegade, a viral dance originally created by Harmon and popularized by D'Amelio. Part of the TikTok icon is visible in the lower-right corner. The dominant colors of vibrant purples and browns are deeply saturated. The shifting pigment layers highlight the source material origin as a moving image medium in which all the frames have been aggregated into a type of modern still life and analog gif.

Visual Description: A pigment painting on paper, sized 36 x 31 inches, depicting a layered series of related posts from Instagram. The semi-transparent, layered images of multiple dogs are cropped to focus on their merged faces looking directly at us. The dominant colors of browns, beiges, blacks, and creams from the dogs’ fur coats, eyes, and noses are deeply saturated. The shifting pigment layers highlight the source material origin as a moving image medium in which all the frames have been aggregated into a type of modern still life and analog gif.

Visual Description: A pigment painting on paper, sized 36 x 31 inches, depicting a close-up of part of the CNN logo that appears as curving, abstracted lines. The dominant colors of bright red, yellow-gold, and neon pink are vibrant and deeply saturated. The shifting pigment layers highlight the source material origin as a broadcasted moving image medium in which all the frames have been aggregated into a type of modern still life and analog gif.

Visual Description: A pigment painting on paper, sized 36 x 31 inches, depicting layered images of a storm radar tracker, with translucent text superimposed on top of the image, and part of an arm with a hand pointing at a weather screen. The dominant colors of deep cool blues and darker blue-blacks are deeply saturated. The shifting pigment layers highlight the source material origin as a broadcasted moving image medium in which all the frames have been aggregated into a type of modern still life and analog gif.

Visual Description: A pigment painting on paper, sized 32.5 x 31 inches, depicting a blurry close-up of an upside-down American flag on fire that is waving and twisting in the wind. The dominant colors of vibrant blue, red, gold, yellow-white, and black-brown are deeply saturated. The shifting pigment layers highlight the source material origin as a broadcasted moving image medium in which all the frames have been aggregated into a type of modern still life and analog gif.

Visual Description: A pigment painting on paper, sized 36 x 25.25 inches in portrait orientation, depicting a cropped image from a live camera feed. There is a close-up of the patterned, carpeted floor of the House of Representatives, with the bodies of people in suits walking quickly away with their backs to the viewer. The dominant colors of vibrant blue, black, gray, and brown are touched with highlights of purple, pink, and orange-brown and are deeply saturated. The shifting pigment layers highlight the source material origin as a moving image medium in which all the frames have been aggregated into a type of modern still life and analog gif.

About

Gabrielle Ondine Mertz is a multidisciplinary artist with a practice that explores contemporary information structures through the use of altered technology, painting, printmaking, and other forms. Mertz creates images, installations, and other works that expose and reimagine digital, architectural, social, and environmental spaces and systems. Previously the Founder/Artistic Director of Ondine and Company, she has created exhibitions, performances, and site-specific projects on stages, on tour, and on screen. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe at the Cultural Center of Krakow, New Museum, High Museum, International Dance Festival, Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, Susquehanna Museum of Art, and King Plow Arts Center, among others. She is the recipient of commissions/awards from the Cultural Olympiad, Rauschenberg Foundation, Open Society Foundation, City of Atlanta, Georgia Council for the Arts, Center for Artistic Activism, and Netherland-America Foundation, among others. Her work with nonprofit organizations, governmental entities, and international institutions includes The United Nations Economic & Social Council, Obama For America, The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Arts for AIDS, The Carter Center, Institute for Global Policy, Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and International Rescue Committee, among others. She has served as a board member/on the advisory panel of the Emory Women’s Center, Bronx Council on the Arts, Atlanta Coalition for the Performing Arts, NYC Cultural Development Fund, and Fulton County Arts Council, among others. She has taught/lectured at New York University, Bruce High Quality Foundation University, Emory University, and Image Film & Video Center, among others. She is the Director of Drawing Out The Vote, a voter education program mobilizing turnout and access to information through collaboration with the creative community.