The Hole’s “You Are Here” looks at how digital technology has changed the way people consume art (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The Hole
312 Bowery
Through October 13, free, 8:00
Exhibition continues through April 24
212-466-1100
theholenyc.com
youarehere.newyorkartdepartment.org
Early Saturday afternoon, curators Arnaud Delecolle and Marcella Zimmerman of the New York Art Department were still cleaning up after what appeared to have been a wild opening night party Friday for the weekend exhibition “You Are Here” at the Hole. The show in the Hole’s secondary gallery space examines the way art is created, experienced, and consumed over the internet and through digital technology, complete with all the randomness that can entail. Six sets of eyes stare out of Josh Reames’s acrylic painting “Somewhat Paranoid,” evoking the surveillance state of the web, along with a tongue sticking out, reminding us there is nothing we can do about it. Kathy Grayson, who runs the Hole, contributes a trio of oil paintings, one based on tennis star Venus Williams, that reconfigure and rupture digital imagery via datamoshing. In Jacob Ciocci’s “Take Me” video, a group of young girls star in their own YouTube-like amateur video set to Katy Perry’s “E.T.” Visitors are invited to sit down at a small desk and immerse themselves in Rick Silva’s “The Endless Summer,” a 3D audiovisual environment that takes its name from the seminal surfing movie. There are also works by Big Egypt 2020, #BEENTRILL#, Trudy Benson, Thomas Pregiato, Ryder Ripps, and Phillip Stearns; the exhibit includes an individual eight-page foldout paper zine for each artist. As an added bonus, Kadar Brock’s terrific “dredge” show, which was supposed to close October 5, has been extended, consisting of older artworks that he covered with pastel pigments, then perforated, sanded, and scraped, resulting in powerful, eye-catching canvases, as well as one multilayered, multicolored piece made up of the paint chips and detritus from his studio floor.