Video Game Art Show to head GDC
Posted by M (8 Mar 2005, 12:26 p.m. NZDT)
On Thursday, March 10, 2005, Start Soma, San Francisco's gallery for emerging artists and collectors, will host the opening of a video game art show. Curated by Start Soma founder John Doffing, the exhibition will explore the iconic connections between video games and New Art. Featured artists include Mars-1, MISK, NoMe, Retna, Plasticfucker, David DeRosa, The Vinyl Killers, Tim Gaskin, Kelly Tunstall, Brad Isdrab, Aidan Hughes, Jimmy Soat, and Keith Haring's street-art partner, Eric Orr. In addition, the show will showcase video art, multimedia, projections, visuals, and 8-bit music from high-tech artists Stefan G., Hexastatic and Chaotron.
The free opening, which begins at the Blue Cube, San Francisco's newest club and event space, at 6pm, marks Start Coma's second anniversary. Since its inception the gallery has hosted several dozen shows in a wide range of spaces, including a downtown loft, a Mission-district warehouse, a turn-of-the-century boutique hotel, and San Francisco's City Hall. Solo shows have featured Tim Gaskin's neo-pop paintings and MISK's stylized graffiti art.
"The Video Game Art Show is an homage to the thumb muscle building mechanisms that babysat us in the seventies and eighties" says Doffing. "All the artists in this show had a literal connection to video games - so it's not surprising that old-school gaming iconography should show up in their art. In turn, they continue to re-invent the aesthetics that interactive designers look to as 'cutting edge.' The connections between New Art and video games cannot be overstated."
The March 10th opening event, which also coincides with the Game Developers Conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center, will feature a unique "Video Game Lounge," game displays and giveaways. Featured DJ's at the opening include Tom Thump, DJ Soulside, Chris Sia, NoMe, and Kelly Tunstall.
"This is not your typical wine and cheese art show," says Doffing. "We have networked games. Wall projections. A gaming cinema. Superstar DJs and Rappers. We even have the Suicide Girls! Mix this with some amazing art - from painting and sculpture to new multimedia art and 8-bit music, and we have an art show that is pretty amazing. I am absolutely honoured to be a small part of this, and am very pleased that we were able to put together an art show that coincides with the 2005 Game Developer's Conference."
"Video game iconography has seeped into every crack of pop culture" says San Francisco artist Tim Gaskin, whose Lara Croft painting will appear in the show. "Americans spend more money on video games than they do on movie tickets, and it is about time that the connections between video games and New Art are showcased."
