“THE SON AND THE HOUSE”: This glitch art painting by Phillip McConnell is part of the “Digital Alchemy” exhibit at The Gourgaud Gallery in Cranbury from July 9-28. A reception will be held at the gallery on July 9 from 1-4 p.m

The Gourgaud Gallery in Cranbury presents “Digital Alchemy” by Trenton artist Phillip McConnell from July 9-28. A free reception will be held at the gallery on July 9 from 1-4 p.m.

Mr. McConnell describes himself as a glitch artist with a focus on abstract, surrealist digital art.

“‘Digital Alchemy’ is a project where I blend different aspects of photography (landscape, portrait, urban, nature and macro) with different concepts of glitch art (VHS, aesthetic, vapor wave) to create something new out of something broken,” said Mr. McConnell. “With almost everything in photography being digital, it leads the mind to wonder what can really be done when pushed a step further. As technology advances, more and more everyday pushing the boundary of what the mind can create is literally at your fingertips. Alchemy is the transformation of matter either from one state to another or from one substance to another. By bending and manipulating the raw data or code of a picture, I essentially corrupt the original picture by breaking it down to its most basic form and bend it to create something new.

“This project features several different series, the first of which is titled ‘Return to Nature,’ a juxtaposition series where I blend different aspects of nature photography and architecture to show the relative size of nature to man-made construction. Another series is titled ‘As Above So Below,’ or aasb for short. In this series, I take religious figures and place them next to their places of worship.”

The Gourgaud Gallery is at 23A North Main Street in Cranbury. Hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, July 9 from 1-4 p.m.; and Sunday, July 16 from 1-3 p.m.

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