Focus, People

Jeff Elrod's work looks like what would happen if you locked a smart kid and a game-free computer in an empty room for 10 weeks. The Texas-based artist's whimsical creations range from simple, childlike scrawlings to complex meta-paintings with titles such as "Get Off the Internet" and "Pong." In the process of creating his art, Elrod explores the boundary between man (he calls it "analog") and machine (digital): He uses a computer mouse to design his drawings, then hand-traces them onto canvas, using paint to recreate the electronic image and masking tape to dictate its shape and form. Though his work has been shown in galleries from New York to Milan, Elrod's show at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will be his first solo exhibit at a museum. The Modern's FOCUS series brings in three artists a year, one of whose works will be selected for purchase by the museum. Elrod's work is a true modernist's modern art, marrying chaos and focus in strictly stylistic abstraction. The computer helps him wrap his mind around a painting, Elrod says...or, in his words, "I'm lazy, in a thoughtful way." General admission ($10) to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., includes admission to FOCUS: Jeff Elrod. Visit themodern.org for more info.
Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Feb. 15. Continues through March 29, 2009