Digital behavior featured in first Gallery Series exhibit

He was born into a family of artists, art patrons and art enthusiasts. Given this background, he was encouraged to explore his innate ability and enthusiastic passion for art making, from an early age.

“Making art is something I have always loved and have always done throughout my life,” he said in his online biography. In his artist's statement, Luna said making art is a divine interaction.

Luna developed as a self-taught artist from childhood through adolescence synthesizing styles and techniques derived from popular media, art, and culture. For his formal academic training, Luna earned a bachelor’s degree in painting and drawing at the University of Colorado, and a master’s in painting at Colorado State University.

He has received numerous awards over his 20 years of public exhibitions. In addition to his personal accomplishments, Luna has facilitated the artistic growth of young people through his work as a visual arts educator in Colorado.

Luna said the pieces in the exhibit are products of his reflections regarding cultural transformation during the digital age.

“I am well aware of the beneficial applications of these technologies in contemporary society such as increased information access, increased communication capabilities, and increased efficiency in social infrastructure. That being said, the creation of the work relates directly to my consideration of some of the less appealing aspects of digital culture that are often overlooked in the process of its casual and often zealous consumption. For me, these aspects stem from my belief that digital information devices and platforms lend themselves to excessive use and this excessive use often has negative impacts on humanity,” Luna said.

Luna believes the compulsive and obsessive use of technology such as cell phones serves to diminish the value of direct interactive experiences, enables narcissistic behavior on a mass scale, and contributes to distracted states of awareness that are potentially very dangerous. He said current research on the topic associates excessive use with a variety of mental and physical ailments.

“In contemporary society, excessive use is not only accepted, it is encouraged,” Luna said.

His works reframe digital culture from an uncommon reflective perspective in an unusual visual format to encourage thoughtfulness regarding the less considered impacts of digital information technology in society. Through modified relational symbolism, several of the works re-contextualize digital culture by paralleling the historical value of the spiritual and mystical to the contemporary assignment of faith to digital information technology systems.

Luna said any courses that incorporate a social research component could benefit from a visit to the exhibit and subsequent discussion, specifically, visual art, history, communications, graphic design, and social science.

Furthermore, I also feel that the work has social relevance for an audience beyond that associated with academic content specificities. The ubiquitous permeation of digital culture in almost every aspect of contemporary society aligns the work’s message to the larger audience of digital society as a whole. In this respect, the art could provide a culturally relevant, thought provoking experience for most any person.

The free exhibit is open to the public through Sept. 11, Mon.-Fri. from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by appointment. Call 308-432-6317 for more information.