Now open through until the end of February 2017 at Virtual Chelsea Hotel’s Gallery 23, curated by enola em (enola Vaher), is an ensemble art exhibition featuring the images and art of Talitha Alice Minx, Vonnie Fox, Dulcis Taurog, Azu O, Miles Elventhauer, Hana Hoo (Hana Hoobinoo) and yours truly.
This is an eclectic and fascinating exhibition which brings together a number of artists of very contrasting styles, yet all of whom complement one another within the confines of the gallery’s walls. I will confess that not all of my fellow exhibitors were familiar names to me – but I will say that having spent time setting up at the gallery and having plenty of time to admire their work has made me something of a fan in some cases.
Take Miles Elventhauer for example. His work, located on the wall immediately to the right of the gallery’s entrance, is focused on caricatures of the famous and well-known, and he offers 8 individual drawings together with two ensemble pieces. I challenge anyone not to identify all of those featured in the pieces. However, as eye-catching and attractive as they all are, what makes this works stunning is that no pencil, pen, brush or stylus was used in their creation.
“All were created with the Mobile Sketchbook for iPhone app, ” Miles says of his work. “No stylus, no tricks. Just my finger on the glass of an iPhone 4 or 5.” Given he rarely exhibits outside of his own studio (“I live in New York, so I wanted to do the Chelsea,” he told me), this exhibition marks the perfect opportunity to gain an introduction to his art.
Dulcis Taurog, with whom I share a corner of the gallery space, is another artist whose work has to be seen to be appreciated. Entirely abstract in approach, it may at first appear to be art uploaded from the physical word, or digitally produced through PhotoShop or a similar application. However, this is not the case.
Rather, she utilises her own objects created in-world, or uses viewer elements such as the sculpty image window, the refraction sliders in the environmental editor, using texture from her inventory to replace the viewer’s default wave image, all to create fabulous abstract images of extraordinary complexity and beauty.
As noted above, this is a fascinating exhibition given the breadth of styles and images on display, with many of the pieces available for purchase. I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to be part of things at Gallery 23 and the Virtual Chelsea Hotel, and my thanks to Enola for allowing me to do so.
SLurl Details
- Gallery 23, virtual Chelsea Hotel (Lanestris, rated: Moderate)
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