Patricia Lay

Pat Lay is a sculptor who lives and works in Jersey City. Since 2005 Lay has collected throwaway computer parts and assembled them into a series of wire-filled, disc-ridden, and camera-eyed heads titled Transhuman Personae Series. Drawing from Dada, Surrealism and the Western Congo Basin in Africa, the artist uses everyday detritus to render a critique of Western technology.

With a current focus on the mosaic nature of computer motherboards, the artist currently reproduces detailed photographs of the electronic circuitry and arranges them into a series of intricately patterned collages. SFL40V0 #17 (2010) recalls woven tapestries from the Orient while CDAC-CMVO-2 #2 (2009) combines similar imagery along with representations that portray a human portrait deluged by a swath of electronic wires.

Pat Lay pieces together our strong attachment to technology, suggesting our close proximity to artificial life. In June 2011 the artist had a solo show at Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn. Her work was also included in several group shows within the last year, Portraiture: Inside Out at the Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, 2011, Splendid Energy at the Jersey City Museum, 2010, and What is Portraiture? at the Montclair Art Museum through November 2011.