FriendsWithYou’s first solo exhibition in New York City is filled with color and smiles (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The Hole
312 Bowery
Tuesday – Saturday through August 6, free
212-466-1100
www.theholenyc.com
www.friendswithyou.com
exhibition slideshow
The Hole has inaugurated its new gallery space on Bowery with the feel-good exhibit ☺ from the Miami-based FriendsWithYou duo of Samuel Borkson and Arturo “Tury” Sandoval III. Earlier this summer, the art collective helped celebrate the extension of the High Line with the interactive outdoor installation “Rainbow City,” consisting of forty colorful inflatables in various shapes and sizes, one reaching forty feet high, spread across sixteen thousand square feet. While there’s not quite so much room in the Hole’s Lower East Side Gallery, FWY has still created a color-drenched happy wonderland of sculptures placed on the walls and floors, across corners, and bursting through the ceiling, continuing their mission “to spread the idea of Magic, Luck, and Friendship.” The kinetic lasercut “Round & Round” features a pair of yellow smiley faces slowly spinning in circles. “Sonic Goo” (a tribute to New York City art rockers Sonic Youth and their album Goo?) is what you’d get if you took malleable red plastic and just threw it against the wall. “The Portal” is a rectangular black-and-white head seemingly at rest. “The Shadow of Death” and “Spirit Guide” resemble paint palettes, even though there are no traditional paintings in the show. (The latter includes a green tongue sticking out at the viewer.) In “Up & Up,” a black smiley face next to a white smiley face take turns moving up and down ever so slightly. And the candy-colored inflatable sculpture “Starburst” threatens to grow out of its own room, a giant child wanting to play. Collaborating with Native Shoes, FWY has also decorated the pop-up store next door with ghostly wall figures; inside you can buy such colorful, comfortable summer footwear as the Miller, the Jericho, the Howard, the Corrado, and the Jefferson. In an art world where exhibitions can get oh-so-serious, ☺ is an absolutely refreshing diversion, like the game of Candy Land, only there are no losers.