December 25, 2025
Owen Fox Coolidge
Test Patterns
Council_St Gallery
December 6, 2025 - January 4, 2026
Owen Fox Coolidge
Owen Fox Coolidge was a young interdisciplinary artist whose life was tragically cut short in 2024. This posthumous exhibition focuses on a single body of work created in 2022-2023. For these pieces, Coolidge wrote a script in the python programming language then fed numerical data into it. The output produced colorful squares filled with gradients, stripes and more complex geometric patterns. In this exhibit, they are printed on large pieces of paper and presented sequentially. Each digital print contains a grid of forty-eight "Test Patterns" varying in complexity from two or three stripes to concentric and overlapping rectangles. Some of the pieces are comprised of more organic and amoeboid shapes while others dissolve into abstractions made up of millions of tiny pixels akin to interference patterns.
Exactly how the pieces were created — what computations were involved - is unknown, other than the fact that the works are all numerical/data generated. What is a given in code based art is that numerous iterations can produce patterns that morph and mutate to create unexpected and wondrous outcomes. What is so interesting here is the way the process is revealed through the presentation. This allows viewers to inspect and compare the sequential growth of the algorithm. While each individual composition is titled ImageGen together they form "Test Patterns." Eleven grids encircle the gallery walls and while it is possible to focus on individual images the relationships between the different squares are what give the project its intrigue.
According to Wikipedia Op Art is "an abstract style of art, popular in the 1960s, that uses precise geometric patterns, lines, and contrasting colors (often black and white) to create optical illusions of movement, vibration, hidden images, or warping, tricking the viewer's eye and playing with perception and color theory." While it makes sense to associate Coolidge's project with Op Art and painters such as Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, it is more apt to draw comparisons with software art — works created with code based algorithms — by digital artists such as Casey Reas. Like Reas, Coolidge's practice is conceptually based. Both artists are aware of how to tweak computer code to create an ever evolving array of geometric abstractions. That Coolidge's practice is digital is significant. Op art is more often associated with painting, and it is unlikely that Coolidge would have sat at an easel tweaking colors, forms and gradients to create a succession of small square paintings. Through computer code the generative process is inevitable and the slight differences from composition to composition are in fact part of the process. How an image from the series 628_1024x1024 with its purple and green hues contrasts with the pink and blue 636_1024x1024 opens up a discussion of color theory — in the tradition of Josef Albers — as Coolidge's iterations illustrate how the same pattern resonates differently when the colors change.
The closer one looks, the more one sees in these complex grids. And when separated from the ensemble to be enlarged and viewed individually the images pack an even greater punch. In ImageGen 95, 24x24 horizontal bands move through the color spectrum to highlight color complements — blue then red then orange then purple then yellow. In ImageGen 191, 24x24 thin lines of color start in the lower corner of the composition and gradually begin to curve as they arc toward the upper portion of the image. ImageGen 449 24x24 appears to be a simple gradient that transitions from olive green to a muted orange whereas ImageGen 471 24x24 resembles a complex interference pattern or computer glitch. Whether seen alone or in combination, Coolidge's pieces speak optimistically to the endless possibilities of code based art. Code, like a paint brush can be thought of as a tool that allows an artist to put forth their ideas.
Test Patterns
Council_St Gallery
December 6, 2025 - January 4, 2026
Owen Fox Coolidge
Owen Fox Coolidge was a young interdisciplinary artist whose life was tragically cut short in 2024. This posthumous exhibition focuses on a single body of work created in 2022-2023. For these pieces, Coolidge wrote a script in the python programming language then fed numerical data into it. The output produced colorful squares filled with gradients, stripes and more complex geometric patterns. In this exhibit, they are printed on large pieces of paper and presented sequentially. Each digital print contains a grid of forty-eight "Test Patterns" varying in complexity from two or three stripes to concentric and overlapping rectangles. Some of the pieces are comprised of more organic and amoeboid shapes while others dissolve into abstractions made up of millions of tiny pixels akin to interference patterns.
Exactly how the pieces were created — what computations were involved - is unknown, other than the fact that the works are all numerical/data generated. What is a given in code based art is that numerous iterations can produce patterns that morph and mutate to create unexpected and wondrous outcomes. What is so interesting here is the way the process is revealed through the presentation. This allows viewers to inspect and compare the sequential growth of the algorithm. While each individual composition is titled ImageGen together they form "Test Patterns." Eleven grids encircle the gallery walls and while it is possible to focus on individual images the relationships between the different squares are what give the project its intrigue.
According to Wikipedia Op Art is "an abstract style of art, popular in the 1960s, that uses precise geometric patterns, lines, and contrasting colors (often black and white) to create optical illusions of movement, vibration, hidden images, or warping, tricking the viewer's eye and playing with perception and color theory." While it makes sense to associate Coolidge's project with Op Art and painters such as Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely, it is more apt to draw comparisons with software art — works created with code based algorithms — by digital artists such as Casey Reas. Like Reas, Coolidge's practice is conceptually based. Both artists are aware of how to tweak computer code to create an ever evolving array of geometric abstractions. That Coolidge's practice is digital is significant. Op art is more often associated with painting, and it is unlikely that Coolidge would have sat at an easel tweaking colors, forms and gradients to create a succession of small square paintings. Through computer code the generative process is inevitable and the slight differences from composition to composition are in fact part of the process. How an image from the series 628_1024x1024 with its purple and green hues contrasts with the pink and blue 636_1024x1024 opens up a discussion of color theory — in the tradition of Josef Albers — as Coolidge's iterations illustrate how the same pattern resonates differently when the colors change.
The closer one looks, the more one sees in these complex grids. And when separated from the ensemble to be enlarged and viewed individually the images pack an even greater punch. In ImageGen 95, 24x24 horizontal bands move through the color spectrum to highlight color complements — blue then red then orange then purple then yellow. In ImageGen 191, 24x24 thin lines of color start in the lower corner of the composition and gradually begin to curve as they arc toward the upper portion of the image. ImageGen 449 24x24 appears to be a simple gradient that transitions from olive green to a muted orange whereas ImageGen 471 24x24 resembles a complex interference pattern or computer glitch. Whether seen alone or in combination, Coolidge's pieces speak optimistically to the endless possibilities of code based art. Code, like a paint brush can be thought of as a tool that allows an artist to put forth their ideas.