Filter Effect is a sculptural exploration of the invisible, yet pervasive systems that shape our understanding of the world. In an era dominated by algorithmic news feeds, consumer convenience, and environmental precariousness, these artworks examine how we constantly sift, sort, and reorganize our experiences. From online marketplaces to social media timelines, systems that provide clean water to the lungs in our chests, photo filters and filter bubbles, native plants and forests, our own perceptions and psychological lens, filtration is constantly directing our lived experience.
Across these sculptural pieces, natural elements and industrial remnants intermingle, becoming portals into the tension between the organic and the manufactured, the beautiful and the destructive, the necessary and the indulgent. Impressions of waterfalls, cast iron lungs patterned from plant life, and reconfigured remnants of consumerism serve as counterpoint to the quiet wisdom of ecosystems that cleanse, sort, and renew.
Viewers are invited to reflect on how we sift through vast currents of information and material, how we construct meaning from what is included or excluded, and how we navigate the boundary between clarity and distortion. At once an archive and a call to action, it asks us to consider: When do our filters help us focus, and when do they confine our vision? And what might it mean to look, create, and choose beyond the countless lenses we have inherited?
Artist Statement (PDF)
Upcoming Events
Participate in the Fire Press Library
Fire Press Library (FPL) is an ever-growing collection of cast metal brands that use heat to stamp 2D images on objects and surfaces. When heated and pressed to wood or leather the brand burns a permanent image onto the surface. Through this process a set of ink stamps are also created allowing for traditional printmaking as well. The collection is an archive of sculptural printmaking from a wide range of artists that is shared with the public through workshops and events.
It begins with a 2D design which is then used to create a pattern to fabricate a cast metal stamp of the image. Once the brand is fabricated it is added to the library and is then shared with workshop participants. Participants are invited to submit a design to be considered for the library and the cycle begins again. Learn More or Apply here.
Cold Press Workshop
Saturday, March 22, 2025 — 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Registration required. Registration coming soon.
Hot Press Workshop
Saturday, May 10, 2025 — 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Registration required. Registration coming soon.
Gallery
Artist Bio
Brighton McCormick is a sculptor, educator and art fabricator living and working in South Minneapolis. Their interdisciplinary practice focuses on sculpture and gallery installation, community engaged projects, and public art primarily utilizing metal working and reinterpreted found objects. Brighton has a BFA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from the University of Washington. Currently Brighton is teaching at the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, is a faculty member at Hamline University, and is the founder of Fire Press Library.