AC Institute Announces Dustin Grella Exhibit

Announcement from the AC Institute:

Being obsessive and compulsive in our society often carries negative connotations. In Dustin Grella's work, the artist and filmmaker prefers to celebrate these traits, referring to it as OCC, Obsessive Compulsive Culture. Grella approaches his work as if it were a puzzle, taking an action or an idea and aggressively repeating it, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, until a resolution is found.

Grella’s 2010 Prayer for Peace [1], an animated short dedicated to the memory of Grella’s brother, who was killed in the current military conflict in Iraq, received the 2010 Walt Disney Animation Studios grand prize for Best Student Animation [2] at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

In his Notes to Self project, Grella has written and then mailed himself a letter every day for over ten years. The exercise has generated 3,650 letters (and counting), which remain meticulously ordered and still sealed to this day. The slight variations in the project, a change of font, the physical location of the cancellation stamp, and of course what is written inside, are nuances that help decipher time's complexities.

The AC Institute Satellite Space in New York City has curated an exhibit of Grella's Notes to Self project, running March 29 through April 28, with an opening reception on Thursday, March 29, from 6-8 pm.

Dustin Grella: Notes to Self
March 29 – April 28, 2012
Opening Event: Thursday, March 29, 6-8pm

Opening in the AC Institute Satellite Space on the 2nd floor of 547 W. 27th St., Suite 210
For more information, contact info@artcurrents.org [3]

About Dustin Grella
Dustin Grella was raised in the rural community of Medina, Ohio, and now resides in New York City. He received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts, being honored with the Paula H. Rhodes Award for Excellence in Computer Art. His animations' accolades include winning the Walt Disney Award at the prestigious Ottawa International Animation Festival and in May 2012 will be premiering a series of micro-shorts at the Cannes Film Festival. He is currently in production of the Animation Hotline, a series of daily animations that use crowd-sourced voicemail messages for content. If you've got a story give him a call at 212-683-2490. www.dustingrella.com [4]