Harris Dimitropoulos’ Hecceity (Storrs Gallery, School of Architecture, UNC Charlotte) features nine large digital works made entirely with common tools. Dimitropoulos makes complex works using basic hardware and software as a way to explore his evolving attitude toward digital media.

• Harris Dimitropoulos, Caustic Networks. Giclée print on canvas, 42-inch x 42-inch (image courtesy of the artist)

The work falls into two different camps: ink-jet prints on canvas and map-like works on paper.

The seven canvases are aggressive, most with bright, hard colors that resemble automotive finishes. In some, glossy surfaces loop, twist and fracture; in others there is organic rupture and flow. There is a lot of contradictory play with flatness and depth, linear elements, spillage, and reflection, all harnessed into a set of highly disciplined works.

These canvas works are purely digital. Dimitropoulos starts with small sketches, but most of the work is done with 3-D software, Photoshop or other pixel-editing software and a graphics tablet.

The two map pieces are more subtle and intimate. They not only evoke the dreamy emotions one has when poring over maps, but they lack the sleek, cool distance of the canvases. Each 60-inch by 84-inch archival print on paper features a manipulated image of water or earth, over which are superimposed layers of black and white patterns derived from images such as water on a lake or plant structures.

• Harris Dimitropoulos, Dichroic "Red". Giclée print on canvas, 48-inch by 48-inch (image courtesy of the artist)

For Dimitropoulos, this work is about exceeding limits. Intentionally using the default function of the computer (as well as readily available software), he fights something predetermined to produce unique objects.

As a studio instructor in architecture at Georgia Tech, Dimitropoulos was forced to accept our increasing dependence on technology. But he went beyond accepting to embracing — since the mid-’90s, his artistic output has been almost entirely digital. When he talks about these pieces and the arduous process of constructing them, however, it is evident that he still believes in the goodness of manual work.

And what about the title of the show? Briefly, hecceity is that which makes something unique, an object’s “thisness.”

This work is perfectly capable of standing on its own, but if you choose, the knotty artist statement accompanying the exhibition can lead you down a trail of critical theory and philosophy that can be confounding, inspiring or both. Welcome it or ignore it, but don’t be intimidated by this or any other complex artist statement. Artists travel many paths — in terms of both inspiration and method — to get to their work.

– Barbara Schreiber

Harris Dimitropoulos: Hecceity runs through October 22 at the Storrs Gallery, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, College of Arts + Architecture, School of Architecture: http://coaa.uncc.edu/Academics/School-of-architecture/

The galleries at Davidson College have a tradition of bringing notable, sometimes difficult art to Charlotte audiences. This week, an exhibition that upholds that tradition opens in the college’s Van Every Gallery.

Wafaa Bilal was born in Iraq and is a naturalized citizen of the United States. In his often grueling, performance-based work, he takes both cultures to task for allowing fears, assumptions and noxious stereotypes to obstruct the path to peaceful conflict resolution. Among other things, he addresses the way people are desensitized by video games that present fantasy as fact and how depersonalization is essential to prosecuting war.

• Wafaa Bilal, "Domestic Tension" (photo courtesy of the artist)

Bilal’s Davidson exhibition includes recreations of two live performances. In “Domestic Tension,” Bilal was confined to a gallery where people could interact with him via chat and webcam 24 hours a day. Over a period of one month, his website received more than 80 million hits. People also had the option of shooting him with paintballs, and shoot they did — more than 65,000 times. “and Counting,” is an ongoing project in which Bilal will be tattooed with 5,000 red dots to represent members of the US military who have died in the war in Iraq and 100,000 green dots, visible only under black light, to represent Iraqi casualties. There will be additional programming on Bilal and his work throughout the run of the exhibition.

• Wafaa Bilal, "and Counting" (Photograph by Brad Farwell, courtesy the artist)

Despite his subject matter, Bilal strives to skirt controversy and instead promote discussion. As a result, he has racked up coverage and praise from mainstream outlets such National Public Radio, which recently did an in-depth feature on him, Newsweek and the Chicago Tribune and exhibited in Baghdad, the Netherlands, Thailand, Croatia and numerous U.S. venues, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum. He currently teaches in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Bilal will present a lecture in the Semans Lecture Hall, Thursday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m., to be followed by a gallery reception.

The Smith Gallery will feature a sort of homecoming for former Charlotte artist Darren Goins, who decamped to New York earlier this year. Casual Language: A Mixed Emoticon, will feature all-new work that encompasses silkscreen, neon and drawings rendered with old CAD software. (Goins has endured some ribbing for his attachment to vintage CAD, but it really fits his aesthetic.)

Goins will discuss this work, which was commissioned specifically for the exhibition, Friday, Oct. 15, at 12:45 p.m., in the gallery.

Both exhibitions run through December 8. The Van Every/Smith Galleries and Semans Lecture Hall are located in the Belk Visual Arts Center, 315 North Main Street, Davidson. Admission is free. Info: Brad Thomas, brthomas@davidson.edu or 704-894-2519.

— Barbara Schreiber