Tuned In Exhibition | Opening Reception

Since the dawn of the internet and the rise of the digital age, artists have been creating artwork that responds to and incorporates this new media. As the artistic landscape continues to shift with the rise of artificial intelligence, Tuned In focuses on six artists working with the visual language of digital media in tactile mediums. 

Reflecting on how the pace of the internet is accelerating the speed of nostalgia, Tuned In merges artists referencing 2D animated cartoons: Eric Briscoe, Lolo Gem, Evelyn Ivy, and Troy Taylor. In addition, Tuned In features artists playing with imagery conjured by the readily accessible world wide web: Drew Cashin and Ren Frances. Together they display a unifying and timely exploration of digital media’s effect on identity, mental health, and contemporary iconography.

Ranging from uncanny to disturbing to nostalgic, the featured works in this exhibition confront accessibility, influence, and power in the digital age. These artists’ methodical creative processes and analog mediums subvert the instant gratification of the internet. The doom scrolling nature of short-form content becomes a meditation on its subject, infusing the same amount of wistfulness for a Saturday morning cartoon, the technology of the early 2000s, or a viral meme of a forgotten pop culture phenomenon in the recent past. Tuned In straddles the line of the digital and physical space, the real and the fake. 

Programming will include two showings of Ralph Bakshi films: a family-friendly option on September 17th, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” and an adults-only option on September 24th, “Cool World.” The films will serve as fitting thematic complements to the exhibition, as both feature a merge of the digital and physical worlds.