Sam Price
”Eigengrau”

“Eigengrau” is a German term meaning intrinsic gray, signifying the color seen through closed eyes at night. This color condition, a subtly shifting collage of faded hues overwhelmed by darkness, is universal yet ineffable –- it sets the scene for all our dreams and many of our most powerful ideas. As such, Sam has appropriated it as an underlying framework for the conceptual and physical development of his art. From drawing out spontaneous imagery in the black backgrounds of his paintings, to the uncanny forms that emerge to illuminate his sculptural projections, “Eigengrau” is the nexus uniting his practice.

The Eigengrau experience parallels our evolutionary origins, in which our ancestors’ uncharted surroundings may have spurred sentience out of a need for survival. Machine learning algorithms take the phenomenon to the next level, as black boxes that enhance details that we would never ordinarily notice. In another sense, eigengrau also parallels the act of exploring space, of bringing light to the vacuous cosmos. Each piece in the collection engages differently with this timeless encounter with the unknown.

Sam’s art has been featured in Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum, The Mosesian Center for the Arts, Miami Art Week, and one of 1stDibs' first cryptoart exhibitions. Additionally, he was accepted into the 2020 Best of SUNY and SUNY Chancellor’s Gallery Exhibitions. Sam was selected for Cornell’s 2020 Anderson Ranch Painting Scholarship, a \art grant, BitBasel’s CryptoArt for Impact and Innovation Challenge, and the 2020 Edith Adams & Walter King Stone Award in recognition of work filled with promise in advance of his thesis year. He had the honor of being selected for the first digital art collection on the moon, contained in a nickel disc aboard NASA’s first return mission in 50 years in Q3 of 2023. Sam has collaborated with Ponce Neuroscience Lab at Harvard University as part of his thesis exhibition, and continues to partner with their team.

Modfellows invites you to experience “Eigengrau” from August 5th to September 9th.