Billy Friebele
Art & Research
Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist. Materially, my work spans sculpture, video, drawing, and digital art. Through research and creative production, I explore the space between humans, technology, and the natural world.
The artworks I create are instruments in the broadest sense of the word. They are tools for observing our surroundings in new ways, recording devices that capture ephemeral movements. They are not utilitarian, but they do produce a type of visual poetry, using time-based rhythms to engage the viewer in a contemplative space that can also be absurd or humorous.
I create projects that respond to natural forces. Yielding control of the outcome of these works decenters humans as the central focus and encourages observation of natural processes. These tactics address environmental threats and encourage viewers to consider the ramifications of our actions within the larger ecosystem – outside of the narrow confines of oneself.
Bio
Billy Friebele is an artist working in the Washington, DC region. He has exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Orlando Museum of Art, the Art Museum of the Americas, the Katzen Center for the Arts, and the Kreeger Museum among other venues nationally and internationally. Billy was a Hamiltonian Artist fellow and one of the first makers-in-residence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Central to his research and teaching are a concern for the tension between our mediated digital experience and the materiality of the environment. He earned a BA in Philosophy from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Billy Friebele is an Associate Professor of Art at Loyola University Maryland.