Virtually real

In an age of Facebook ‘friends’, airbrushing and CGI, the boundaries between the real and the virtual are becoming increasingly blurred.

Adding to the confusion is the fittingly oxymoronically titled Virtually Real exhibition, which opens next month at Leeds University.

For three months, the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery’s temporary exhibition space will becomes a playground for optical illusions and experimentation.

The aim of this series confusing tromp l’oeils is to invite the audience to think about creating and representing the space and time around us.

Nine artists are taking part in the exhibition: are Petros Chrisostomou, Bruce Ingram, Grant Miller, James Moore, Suzanne Moxhay, Jamie Tiller, Julia Willms, Simon Woolham and Dawn Woolley.

Each artists draws on the idea of creating the illusion of space to produce some beguiling an ultimately, baffling works.

It’s hoped the viewer is forced to suspend disbelief, becoming drawn in by the fictitious spaces and delving into the ‘reality’ of the virtual.

Among the highlights of the show look to be James Moore’s work, which is built up from 2-D planes of painted paper to create a 3-D CGI world; and Grant Miller’s dazzling, kaleidoscopic paintings.

Petros Chrisostomou’s photographs are theatrically-staged arrangements of everyday objects, subverting them into a strange world that plays with the concepts of the real and the imaginary.

Virtually Real runs from 1 March  – 21 May at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, LS2