Grace Miceli’s revolutionary Art Baby Gallery has been sticking it to the patriarchy and spotlighting the internet’s best new art stars since Instagram was in its infancy. Since then her self-coded digital art haven has expanded into IRL spaces with shows such as 2015’s Girls at Night on the Internet and last month’s cheekily titled sequel Why Didn’t You Like My Pic? For the artist/curator’s new show, she’s not just transforming the traditional gallery space — she’s challenging our concept of what tangible art even is, or if any meaningful distinction between physical works and digital ones even exists in the empowering, immersive near future.
I Play No Games is a multimedia art experience that sees free zines exhibited alongside 2D paintings, futuristic screens by Electric Objects, and trippy internet art displayed on the actual walls of Bushwick’s Holyrad Studio. Art Baby teamed up with Visual Magnetics to transform the Holyrad space — which is already activated with Visual Magnetics materials — into an interactive medium itself. Viewers can then become creators by altering the position of magnetic elements from each artwork. Participating artists at the pioneering new show include Ambar Navarro, Signe Pierce, India K, Luisa Rodriguez, and Crystal Zapata.
“I enjoy the interplay of the futuristic Electric Objects screens, intimate and limited edition hand-folded zines, and then the playful interactive magnetic wall. It’s an acknowledgment of the fact you can’t look forward without understanding and referencing the past, specifically materials wise,” Grace explains. Art Baby and its collaborators have a shared ethos when it comes to empowering and nurturing young artists. “Our mission at Electric Objects is to bring these two things together, to afford to digital art the same time and space that we afford to paintings and photography,” say the EO founders, who run a digital artist residency program. “The Internet and the personal computer are two of the greatest engines of creative expression ever invented, and together they have unleashed a total revolution in the way that visual artists create and distribute their work.”
“I Play No Games” opens at Bushwick’s Holyrad Studios on September 30, 2016 from 7-10pm and remains on view throughout the weekend.
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Text Hannah Ongley