Installation artist David Nechak received his M.F.A. from the University of Oregon and currently teaches art at Cornish College of the Arts. His work has been exhibited internationally, including shows and commissions with: Seattle Art Museum, Soil, Center on Contemporary Art, and Horsehead Invitationals (Seattle); Washington State Museum (Pullman); Boise Art Museum; Intersection for the Arts (San Francisco); Creative Time and Art Matters (New York); and Catalyst Art (Belfast, N. Ireland), among others.

"My project "Puzzlement" was initiated with one puzzle that I wanted to fragment and redistribute among the five windows of 911 facing Yale Street. As the project grew, O became interested in gaining more complexity by increasing the number of puzzles to five with different visual patterns. To further my interest I subtracted five puzzle pieces from each puzzle and redistribute them in relief upon one of the other puzzles which formed pattern contrasts while forming negative spaces. The process of relocating the five puzzle pieces also included an axial rotation in their new window locations to dislocate their former orientations. The process itself was one of relating each window puzzle to the others with an overall visual rearrangement of continuity and discontinuity."David Nechak

Often known for his puckish humor, David Nechak uses the storefront windows of 911 Media Arts Center on Yale Avenue to create a playful commentary on the complexities of the digital lifestyle. Anyone can understand a puzzle, including the amazing amounts of wires going in and out of your home entertainment center or you personal PC.

In our lives we all solve our own personal riddles, graphically Nechak demonstrates what happens when pieces of one puzzle (or OS platform) appear in another. The compositional contrast is both pleasing and galling in our quest for perfection. Perhaps the real beauty rests in the attractive contrasts one puzzle makes for another. The installation will remain up until February 22, 2004