Beyond Digital

VENUS OVER MANHATTAN
120 East 65th Street
New York, NY 10065

10.02.2023 - 14.03.2023

Beyond Digital

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan is pleased to present Beyond Digital, an exhibition featuring highlights from the RF.C Collection, the cross-disciplinary art collection founded by Pablo Rodríguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni. On view from February 10th – March 14th, Beyond Digital brings together pioneering artists whose work explores the possibilities of bridging the digital and physical realms.

As early adopters of emergent technologies, Pablo Rodríguez-Fraile, mathematician, blockchain investor and founder of Aorist, and Desiree Casoni, architect and designer, have spent the past twelve years developing what is now one of the world’s premiere digital art collections. Having been among the first collectors of artists such as Refik Anadol, Beeple, Pak, and Andrés Reisinger, their enduring support of digital artists has cemented them as leaders and ambassadors within the field.

The works in Beyond Digital, including static and dynamic NFTs displayed on screens as well as framed prints and physical objects, exemplify the concept of digital art less as a technology and more as medium which holds immense potential for dynamic expression, opening up new possibilities for traversing the physical realm. Andrés Reisinger’s Hortensia chair, existing initially as a digital rendering and driven into physical form via a viral response to the image on social media, exemplifies a complex engagement across multiple dimensions. Through his advanced use of algorithms and exploration of machine intelligence, Refik Anadol creates dynamic dream-like hallucinations which augment and transform our perceptions of the physical world through data-driven aesthetics.

Other artists exemplify how digital mediation can allow for new levels of depth and dynamism not afforded by analog production, such as by modulating a work’s temporality. Daniel Arsham’s Eroding and Reforming Venus of Arles (72.6 Years), which evolves each year and consists of 73 total states, holds the same duration as the average human lifespan, speaking to the longevity of the art form. By creating a digital image each day as part of his Everydays series, Beeple’s work marks the passage of time, transforming the traditional timescales of artistic production.

Beyond Digital explores the resonances and dissonances apparent within the hybridization of art and technology, embracing the new forms that emerge through such slippages. Rather than suggesting a transcendence or subsuming of the physical by the digital, these artists employ an interplay between the two.

Featured Artists: Refik Anadol, Daniel Arsham, Beeple, Dmitri Cherniak, Kjetil Golid, Pak, Trevor Jones, Quayola, Andrés Reisinger, Helena Sarin, Slime Sunday, Hideki Tsukamoto, Vininaso, XCOPY, and 3LAU.

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ABOUT VENUS OVER MANHATTAN
Founded in 2012 by Adam Lindemann, Venus Over Manhattan is dedicated to unique and iconoclastic exhibitions featuring the work of both historic and contemporary artists. Venus represents and collaborates with the several artists and estates including Cornelius Annor , Anastasia Bay, Ana Benaroya, Joan Brown, Roger Brown, John Dogg, Jack Goldstein, Michael Kagan, Susumu Kumijo, Sophie Larrimore, Richard Mayhew , Maryan, Peter Saul, Sally Saul, Shinichi Sawada, Keiichi Tanaami, H.C. Westermann, Dustin Yellin, and Joseph Elmer Yoakum.

In its ten-year history, the gallery has also staged major exhibitions of Billy Al Bengston, Katherine Bernhardt, Bernard Buffet, Alexander Calder, Maurizio Cattelan, William Copley, Walter Dahn, Mike Kelley, John McCracken, Cady Noland, Charlotte Perriand, Raymond Pettibon, Andy Warhol, and Franz West.

Venus Over Manhattan began exhibitions of digital artists in 2022. The gallery has showcased digital artist Erick Calderon (Snowfro) and photographer Justin Aversano, and plans on several additional digital collections in 2023 including IX Shells.