The Emmanuel Gallery is pleased to present the debut iteration of Workbook, a new piece by New York-based artist Jonathan VanDyke. Long working at the intersection of painting and performance, in Denver VanDyke will mount three abstract paintings that will be "activated" by visual and performing arts students.

VanDyke made the three featured paintings by means of an inventive mark-making process. For these works, he struck raw canvas – laid out on his studio floor – with paint-soaked whips. These canvases were further marked by soaks, stains, drips, pours of paint, and washes of inks and dyes. Finally, VanDyke cut this material into hundreds of pieces, arranged the pieces in specific patterns, and sewed the pieces back together. The resulting paintings are embedded with the marks of action held in dynamic tension by geometric order.

Performance and visual art students will use the paintings as the "score" to devise sounds, movements, and performative gestures: in this case, the painting's "marks" signify like notes on a musical score. The paintings become "activated" as performers translate painted marks into qualities such as volume, pace, location, and frequency. Drawn from CU Denver and MSU Denver classes taught by Nima Bahrehmand, Rian Kerrane and Nicole Predki , the students will work closely with the artist in learning possibilities for interpretation. During the live activation of Workbook, the students will draw upon this experience as improvise in real time, riffing with the paintings and with one another, cycling in and out of the space throughout the afternoon. Their responses will include sound, movement, and the manipulation of sculptural objects, with a special emphasis on abstract gestures.