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Nyx Gallery

  • About
  • Artists
  • Artwork
    • Design
    • Digital
    • Drawings
    • Fashion
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paintings
    • Photos
    • Prints
    • Sculpture
    • Technology
    • Urban
    • Video
  • Activities
    • Exhibitions
    • Events
    • News
    • Support
  • Partners
  • Contact
  • Search
 

Origin


“Ars sine scientia nihil est. (Art without knowledge is nothing.) ”
— Jean Mignot, Architect (c. 1370-1430)

By supporting a new dialogue among artists, designers, technologists, and scientists, Nyx Gallery revolutionizes the digital communication of the fine arts for the 21st century. In particular, Nyx Gallery exists for the sole purpose of demonstrating by example that art and design, like science, can articulate subjective and natural truths, and science and technology, like art, can be a tool for self-expression. The concept of Nyx Gallery was inspired by this master class of recent visionaries.

 
 

Nyx Gallery was founded in 2015 by Nexus iR&D Laboratory, a Cambridge-based think tank and design firm of future technologies. Proceeds from all sales support Nyx Gallery artists as well as innovation, research, and development of future technologies by Nexus iR&D Laboratory, including rapid disease detection, intelligent emergency response, tracking of epidemics, and other fascinating data analysis projects.

 

Philosophy


“Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est. (And thus knowledge itself is power.)”
— Sir Francis Bacon, Philosopher/Scientist (1561-1626)
 
 

The four pillars at the foundation of Nyx Gallery, namely, art, design, technology and science, are not as distinct as many would have it. In fact, these words share a common etymological origin.

  • The word art is derived from the ancient Latin word ars meaning skill, craft, or power, or more primitively, artus meaning joint, which is itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ar-ti meaning fitting. Related Greek cognates are ἄρτι [arti] meaning this moment, now and ἄρτιoς [artios] meaning complete or suitable. 
  • The word design is derived from the Latin word designare meaning choose, devise, indicate, or mark. 
  • The word technology is derived from the ancient Greek words τέχνη [techne] meaning skill or craft and λόγος [logos] meaning word, speech, or reason.
  • The word science is derived from the Latin word scientia meaning knowledge, or more primitively, scire meaning discern or distinguish and scindere meaning to cut or divide, which is itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European root skei- meaning cut, split, or dissect.

Art and design represent Skills of Identification. Technology and science represent Skills of Distinction. A complete aesthetic involves both, that is, the ability to create combined with the ability to make said creation unique.

“Scientia sine decoro nihil est. (Science without beauty is meaningless.)”

As is the case for many mathematical and scientific theories, like geometry and physics, movements in art and design possess inherent structures that can be axiomatized. This involves stating a series of self-evident truths and basic assumptions from which other structures follow as consequences.

 
 

In complementary opposition to the Principle of Abstraction in the Contemporary/Conceptual Art Movement (i.e., Everything is art) and the Principle of Universality in the Scientism Movement (i.e., Empirical science is the only form of understanding), Nyx Gallery leads a new movement defined by the following axioms:

  1. The ultimate purpose of life is to achieve an understanding of the self;
  2. Every human possesses an innate capacity to understand, challenge, create, and destroy;
  3. Understanding is a precursor of predicting; prediction is a precursor of mastery;
  4. Understanding follows from the observation of all possible interactions;
  5. Communication is a necessary foundation of all nontrivial interactions;
  6. Ignorance, fear, intolerance, and indifference impede communication;
  7. Open-mindedness, patience, and aesthetic improve communication;
  8. Any aesthetic is reducible to an appreciation of purity and authenticity;
  9. Tension, vulnerability, and innovation are essential to conveying authenticity;
  10. Discipline, integrity, and courage form the basis of all innovation;
  11. Successful innovation arises from the scientific method correctly applied;
  12. Science, like art, is the process of organizing the abstract, amorphous, and unknown;
  13. Scientia sine decoro nihil est (Science without beauty is meaningless);
  14. Art, like science, requires insight and discovery to effectuate paradigm shifts;
  15. Ars sine scientia nihil est (Art without knowledge is nothing);
  16. Science, like art, requires enigmas, paradoxes, and contradictions to progress;
  17. Art, like science, is simultaneously cumulative, evolutionary, and revolutionary;
  18. Science is art, and art is science, both of which soundly reflect the human experience;
  19. The devastating consequence of a life without art or science is simply immeasurable; and,
  20. Truth overcomes perception. Legacy outlives success. Posterity reveres creation, not intention.

Structure


“Communication is a necessary foundation of all nontrivial interactions.”

By presenting its catalogue through 13 medium, style, and technique categories, Nyx Gallery clarifies its nontraditional structure and scope with the following folders:

  • Design includes original, static, digital creations;
  • Digital includes original, looped, digital creations;
  • Drawings includes original drawings, sketches, and illustrations;
  • Fashion includes original fashion designs;
  • Film includes original short films and documentaries;
  • Music includes original compositions and mixes;
  • Paintings includes original paintings (e.g., acrylic, ink, oil, etc.);
  • Photos includes original traditional photographs and digital edits;
  • Prints includes original etchings, engravings, and lithographs;
  • Sculpture includes original sculptures and installations;
  • Technology includes original technology;
  • Urban includes urban and street art; and,
  • Video includes original digital video art.

Other Nyx Gallery pages include: 

  • Artists includes all artists whose artwork appears in Nyx Gallery;
  • Exhibitions includes past and current exhibitions and collaborations;
  • News includes art-design-technology-science related news;
  • Support includes various means to join or support Nyx Gallery; 
  • Contact includes an online messaging form with inquires for Nyx Gallery; and,
  • Search includes a field for searching across all of the above.
 

Mythology


“Oh! thou divine Nyx! how slowly thy chariot threads its way through the starry vault, across the sacred realms of the Aether and mighty Olympus.”
— Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 1075 (c. 500-400 BC)

According to Hesiod's Theogony (A Genealogy of Greek Gods), Nyx is the primordial goddess of the night, a Protogenos, that is, a fundamental aspect of the universe which emerged at the time of creation. Nyx was born of Khaos (Void) along with her siblings, Erebus (Darkness), Eros (Love), Gaia (Earth) and Tartarus (Abyss). Nyx is eternal.

Nótt, Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892)


Nyx is the mother of many, including lesser gods and other immortals. Her great power among the gods cannot be overstated, for it is written that even Zeus, King of the Gods and Ruler of Mount Olympus, feared her wrath.

 
 

Humeur Nocturne (1882), and La Nuit (1883), William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)


By parthenogenesis, Nyx spawned Apate (Deceit), Eris (Strife), Geras (Aging), the Hesperides (Nymphs of the Night), Hypnos (Sleep), the Keres (Spirits of Violent Death), Lyssa (Rage), Momos (Blame), the Moirai (Incarnations of Fate), Moros (Doom), Oizys (Misery), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Nemesis (Retribution), Philotes (Affection), Ponos (Hardship) and Thanatos (Peaceful Death).

La Nuit (1881), Auguste Raynaud (1854-1947)


With her brother Erebus, Nyx bore Aether (Light), Epiphron (Prudence), Hemera (Day) and Charon (Ferryman to the depths of the underworld, Hades). Nyx, herself, lives in an underworld far deeper, Tartarus, prison to the Titans and the damned. She leaves only when Hemera enters and returns only when Hemera departs. Such is the dance of day and night.

La Nuit et l’Aurore (1668), Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne (1631-1681)

 

 

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