GAMESCENES

GAME ART: RENAUD JEREZ’S POISON (2024)

Renaud Jerez’s Poison (2024) is a full-length portrait of a sophisticated woman, elegantly poised in orange-tinted Céline glasses (the artist is keen to specify the exact brand). The lenses faintly mirror a vibrant red backdrop, a blend of Chinese lacquer and Helios red, hinting at an undercurrent of intensity. Draped in a luminous green dress, the fabric shimmers subtly as it cascades to her feet, where she wears a pair of frankly ridiculous yet familiar Swiffer (ditto) slippers, a juxtaposition that adds a touch of domesticity to the otherwise enigmatic scene. In her razor-gloved hand, an armored witch from Obrist’s favorite video game, Elden Ring conjures a bottle that hovers just above her grasp. The bottle, adorned with a skull, floats as if suspended by dark magic, imbuing the composition with an air of danger and mysticism. Across the scene, the words POISON stretch in bold turquoise and pink letters, a vivid inscription that underscores the tension between the portrait’s elegance and its ominous undertones. Jerez’s painting merges the mundane with the fantastical, offering a commentary on power, transformation, and the subtle interplay between fashion and video games, the language of advertising and contemporary art. This work was recently featured in the solo exhibition POISON at Crèvecœur, in Paris.

Renaud Jerez (b. 1982, lives and works in Berlin) explores themes of contamination and consumption through his provocative installations. He crafts avatars from materials like PVC tubing, sports gear, and latex gloves, juxtaposing them with videos that mimic beauty product ads. These skeletal figures, often headless, amputated, and bandaged, expose the relentless demands of industries centered on physical self-maintenance, while their exposed wires and pipe endings hint at a bionic, uncertain future.

LINK: Renaud Jerez

GAME ART: GUENDALINA CERRUTI’S MY TOWN 1X1 (2024)

Guendalina Cerruti, My Town 1x1, 2024, archival inket print on cotton paper, wood, non-reflective glass, metal grid panel, spray paint, acrylic paint 105 x 105 cm 41 3/8 x 41 3/8 in

Guendalina Cerruti, My Town 16x9, 2024, archival inket print on cotton paper, wood, non-reflective glass, metal grid panel, spray paint, acrylic paint 82 x 37.5 cm 32 1/4 x 14 3/4 in

Created using the city-building game Township, Guendalina Cerruti’s My Town 1x1 (2024) presents a digitally rendered utopian garden. This immersive digital landscape features a gallery, a museum, amusement rides, lush plants and flowers, and a tennis court reminiscent of the one showcased in With Urgency. The scene is encapsulated within a dense black frame and metal grid, creating a boundary that simultaneously captivates and restricts the viewer. This deliberate confinement enhances the allure of the garden, challenging the viewer’s sense of access and control. The landscape’s elements seem to defy the imposed boundaries, spilling across the grid and resisting the imposition of authority, thus creating a dynamic interplay between confinement and freedom.

My Town 1x1 was recently presented at ILENIA art gallery in London.

Guendalina Cerruti, born in Milan, Italy, is an emerging artist known for her distinctive approach to contemporary art. Her educational journey includes studying at the Chelsea College of Arts in London, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2014, followed by a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art in 2016. Cerruti's work is characterized by its innovative use of materials and exploration of themes related to consumer culture, identity, and the human experience. She often employs everyday objects and transforms them into thought-provoking art pieces that challenge conventional perceptions and invite viewers to engage in a deeper contemplation of the mundane aspects of life. Her installations, sculptures, and mixed-media works reflect a keen interest in the intersections between art, design, and popular culture.

LINK: Guendalina Cerruti (Images courtesy of ILENIA art gallery)

EVENT: JESSE MORSBERGER'S CROSSPLAY (MAY 17 - JUNE 30, EINDOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS)

Jesse Morsberger: Crossplay
17th May, 2024 – 30th June, 2024
COVA Art Gallery
Philitelaan 73
5617 AM Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Crossplay is the title of a solo exhibition by Jesse Morsberger, taking place from May 17th to June 30th, 2024, at COVA Art Gallery in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This exhibition marks a significant phase in Morsberger’s career, following his impactful contribution to the group exhibition Great Things // Small Doses Vol. 2.

In Crossplay, Jesse Morsberger merges the worlds of gaming and fine art. Drawing inspiration from the video game mechanism of crossplay — where players from different platforms converge — the artist delves into the fusion of actual life occurrences with digital escapades. This body of work uses the concept of crossplay as a profound allegory for life’s myriad transitions, embedding personal stories of grief, affection, and transformation into his artworks, which are marked by vivid, humor-laden depictions.

One of the highlights of this exhibition is the centerpiece (depicted above), also titled Crossplay which immerses the audience into a dramatic video game melee. Here, Jesse Morsberger portrays himself amidst various game characters, engaging in a symbolic brawl. A striking visual element is a fist clutching a paintbrush, surging through the tableau, signifying the intense clash between creative impulses and tangible realities. This piece, like others in the exhibition, invites viewers to navigate the complexities of life through a blend of combat and comedy, all while exploring themes of mortality and personal challenge. The artist appropriates themes, characters, and interfaces from popular games, including Final Fantasy, Super Mario, Battle Field, to rethink the very practice of painting.

Jesse Morsberger, Windfall Island, oil on canvas, 102 x 152 cm, 2021

Jesse Morsberger, Leaving Outset Island, oil on canvas, 66 x 86 cm, 2022

Jesse Morsberger, born in 1994 in Brooklyn, New York, is a contemporary American artist currently residing and working in Los Angeles, California. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from SUNY Purchase College, where he studied from 2012 to 2016, honing his skills and developing his unique artistic voice. Morsberger’s work primarily explores the intersection of digital culture and traditional painting, often drawing on themes from video games and digital experiences to inform his canvas work. His art is known for its vibrant colors, intricate details, and the fusion of digital and physical narratives, reflecting on the contemporary human condition. Jesse has had several significant solo exhibitions, showcasing his ability to captivate and engage audiences. In 2023, he presented Paradigm Shift at Taymour Grahne Projects in London and Rare Candy at Août Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon, each reflecting his evolving thematic concerns and stylistic developments. In 2022, his exhibition LIMIT BREAK, hosted online by Taymour Grahne Projects, further solidified his reputation in the digital art space.

LINK: Crossplay

LINK: Jesse Morsberger

GAME ART: KRISTOFFER ZETTESTRAND'S NEW MINECRAFT PAINTINGS (2024)

Kristoffer Zetterstrand, untitled, pixel art in Minecraft, 2024

Kristoffer Zetterstrand, a celebrated artists who created most of the paintings in Minecraft, recently discussed his artistic process with Mojang. Zetterstrand's approach combines traditional painting techniques with modern 3D software, likening his creative setup to a theatrical stage where he can manipulate elements dynamically. In the game's most recent update, the company has introduced 20 new paintings, 15 of which are Zetterstrand's creations, bringing the total number of in-game art pieces to 46. These new works are larger than the previous ones, allowing for more detailed and complex motifs. Zetterstrand uses classical themes infused with video game elements, pushing the boundaries of pixel art by utilizing the full spectrum of sRGB colors, a luxury not available to early pixel artists. This approach helps in maintaining clarity even when the images are scaled down to fit the game's resolution, a challenge he navigates by focusing on abstract qualities and simplifying details to emphasize light and dark masses, similar to squinting to blur details in traditional painting. Despite the challenges and discarded attempts, the new paintings offer intricate scenes ranging from everyday objects to interactions between characters, including a mandatory skeleton, blending seamlessly into the game's aesthetic. His early video game inspired project works - from 2009, 2008 and 2007 - made history.

The full article is available here: Painting the Overlord

LINK: Kristoffer Zetterstrand 

RESOURCE: PUZZLE GAMES AND ABSTRACT ART (ARTREVIEW)

In the latest issue of ArtReview, Dawn Chan draws intriguing parallels between Jonathan Blow's award-winning video game The Witness and the abstract art of Heilmann, Whitney, and LeWitt, focusing on their shared approach to silent instruction and discovery. She highlights how both media - digital games and painting - employ non-verbal communication to engage their audiences, requiring them to decipher a visual language to uncover deeper meanings and experience personal revelations. The video game mirrors abstract art in its use of grid-based designs and spatial systems, framing both as a form of symbolic gameplay that necessitates active participation and interpretation. This perspective redefines the audience or player as an active participant, blurring the lines between playing a game and engaging with art. Among the interesting points raised by Chan, this one - about the role of the gamer - truly stands out:

Read more

Also by Chan: a review of Bill Viola's The Night Journey for ArtForum (2018)

EVENT: DIGITAL PORTRAITURE: EMPATHY IN VIRTUAL WORLDS (APRIL 25 2024 - MAY 5 2024, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM)

Laurie Simmons – Untitled (Woman’s Head) – 1976

Digital Portraiture: empathy in virtual worlds

Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight

April 25 2024 – May 5 2024

Open 1.30 – 6.00 pm from Wednesday to Sunday

Vernissage : 24 April 2024 6-9 pm

Senne 19

rule de la Senne 19

1000 Brussels, Belgium

The exhibition - part of Art Brussels 2024 - explores digital portraiture and empathy within virtual worlds, featuring artists who use a variety of different techniques to seek out emotional and empathetic moments within digital spaces, both from AI combatants and real world people.

An exhibition with works by Chiho Aoshima, Cory Arcangel and Paper Rad, Myfanwy Ashmore, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Alan Butler, Brody Condon, Jodi, Walter Langelaar, Eva and Franco Mattes, Eddo Stern, Petra Szemàn, Ubermorgen, Angela Washko, and Laurie Simmons.

[Senne] is an independent, non-commercial space that intends to present, once or twice a year projects of design and art characterized by their innovative aspects, directed by Thierry Tilquin.

LINK: DIGITAL PORTRAITURE

GAME ART: MANTAS VALENTUKONIS'S VIDEO GAME INSPIRED PAINTINGS (2023)

Mantas Valentukoni, Land of the Babe, 2022, Photo by Vytas Nomadas

Mantas Valentukonis, Madonna, 2022, Photo by Augustinas Žukovas

Mantas Valentukonis, Boss Battle, 2021

Mantas Valentukonis’s paintings fuse seemingly divergent visual worlds, integrating the pixelated aesthetic signatures of video games into the tradition-steeped medium of oil painting, in a style reminiscent of Julius Hoffmann. His canvases capture the layered constructions of late 1990s gaming environments to probe shifting realities across the physical/digital threshold. Valentukonis’s surfaces embrace the blocky distortions of low-polygon counts and pixelated textures. Graphical glitches, visual artifacts, and broken anti-aliasing echo across his works, suspending hyper-real yet jagged figures in fractured voids. Iconography like weapons and muscular combatants appear constructed rather than observed, as if generated by a defective game engine.

This integration of chunky realism and visual rupture mirrors the engineered contradiction of games themselves – at once inviting immersive investment in their worlds while foregrounding their artificiality through distortions readily apparent across the screen. Valentukonis’s paintings inhabit the very space between intimacy and artificiality that gaming occupies, at once immediate yet clearly synthetic. By mining the visual lexicon of gaming while working in oils and acrylics, Valentukonis avoids facile classifications of old vs. new, authentic vs. artificial. He points to video games as the reigning cultural medium of our era, not to de-legitimize conventional artistic foundations but to show video game environments as a new style reformatting the category of the visual. His work extends to artistic video games like the innovative Volumetric Garden (2023).

Mantas Valentukonis (b. 1998) is an emerging Lithuanian painter based in Kaunas. After completing his BA in Fine Arts from the Vilnius Academy of Arts Faculty of Kaunas (2019-2023), Valentukonis has actively exhibited work across Lithuania. His paintings explore the intersection of physical and digital worlds. His canvases exhibit a sophisticated melding of traditional and new media. Realist portrayals of figures come against pixelated grids and fractured spaces, divided by shifts in technique. This visual tension highlights how our tangible reality now sits alongside virtual realms. Valentukonis has had recent solo exhibitions at Drifts Gallery in Vilnius (2024) and Meno Parkas Gallery in Kaunas (2023). His work has also been shown in group shows such as the Lithuanian Artists’ Association Quadrennial (2023) and the Alytus Young Artists Biennial (2022), where he received the Rotari Art Prize. He experiments with mediums like 3D modeling, augmented reality, and photogrammetry to capture how our sense of what is vital, original, or intimate get reconstituted within hybrid digital/physical spaces. Though early in his career, Valentukonis exhibits technical finesse along with conceptual sophistication that positions him as an important young voice investigating new frontiers of 21st century visual culture.

LINK: Mantas Valentukonis at Drifts Gallery

GAME ART: NICHOLAS ALOISIO-SHEARER'S BIG GAME HUNTING (2017)

Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer and Finn Marchant, Big Game Hunting, Bus Projects, 2017

Big Game Hunting examines the disjuncture between the material and the digital and how this separation has engendered an anxiety of the digital. Through the deconstruction and materialisation of fantasy role-playing video games Big Game Hunting interrogates how video games might shape and reflect human emotion, affect and desire.

Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer is an artist and independent curator currently living in Australia whose practice is concerned with the digital conditions of contemporary life. His practice engages with the cultural functions of imaging technologies and examines how networked cultures make use of the history of representation.

LINK: Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer

EVENT: KATHERINE BERNHARDT: DUMMY DOLL JEALOUS EYES DITTO PIKACHU BEEFY MIMIKYU ROUGH PLAY GALARIAN RAPID DASH LIBRA HORN HP 270 VMAX FULL ART (MAY 20 - AUGUST 5 2023, HONG KONG)

Katherine Bernhardt: dummy doll jealous eyes ditto pikachu beefy mimikyu rough play galarian rapid dash libra horn hp 270 vmax full art

May 20—August 5, 2023

David Zwiner Gallery

5–6/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong

press release

 

David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by American artist Katherine Bernhardt (b. 1975) that will take place at the gallery’s location in Hong Kong. The works in this presentation focus on characters from the Japanese media franchise and global game sensation Pokémon, continuing to expand Bernhardt’s unique visual lexicon, which culls from an irreverent pop vernacular as well as her own life and the broader culture. Dummy doll jealous eyes ditto pikachu beefy mimikyu rough play Galarian rapid dash libra horn HP 270 Vmax full art will be Bernhardt’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong and her second with David Zwirner. 

Bernhardt first attracted notice in the early 2000s for her paintings of supermodels taken from the pages of fashion magazines such as Elle and Vogue. In the decade following, she began making pattern paintings that feature quotidian motifs—such as tacos, coffee makers, toilet paper, cigarettes, E.T., Garfield, Darth Vader, and the Pink Panther—in unlikely visual combinations within expansive fields of exuberant color. The compositional elements of Bernhardt’s paintings include palettes that allude to the tropical climes of Puerto Rico, references to the design and colouration of Moroccan rugs and West African Dutch wax fabrics, and influences ranging from Henri Matisse and the Pattern and Decoration movement to Peter Doig and Chris Ofili. 

 

US painter Katherine Bernhardt shines a spotlight on Pokémon characters, with Pikachu taking center stage (above), in her solo exhibition at David Zwirner gallery in Hong Kong. Photo credit: Katherine Bernhardt.

In this exhibition, Bernhardt continues her exploration of contemporary pop phenomena by focusing on the characters of Pokémon’s expansive universe Conceived by creator Satoshi Taijiri and art director Ken Sugimori and first launched by Nintendo in Japan in 1996, Pokémon was introduced to much fanfare in the United States in 1998 and has become one of the world’s largest cross-media franchises. Bernhardt previously debuted the Pokémon character Ditto, a pink-purple blob-like form with shape-shifting powers, in her 2022 exhibition Why is a mushroom growing in my shower? at David Zwirner London. 

In Dummy doll jealous eyes ditto pikachu beefy mimikyu rough play Galarian rapid dash libra horn HP 270 Vmax full art, the new works feature compositions culled from the Pokémon Trading Card Game; these “cards,” each featuring a different Pokémon, are rendered using the signature elements of Bernhardt’s ebullient style. For each painting, she delineates a loose border that frames the character represented and overlays the statistics and special abilities that distinguish their role within the game. Colors and lines bleed and pool together across their surfaces, revealing Bernhardt’s brisk and improvisational process. To create her works, the artist first draws on upright canvases with spray paint, after which she lays them on the floor to apply acrylic paint thinned out with water. Moving back and forth between several paintings at once, Bernhardt invites accident and chance into each of her dynamic compositions through her fast-paced actions.

Named after a gaming supply store in St. Louis, Missouri, Bernhardt's "Yeti Gaming" (2021) comes to life as a giant painting. Photo: David Zwirner

By engaging the Pokémon ecosystem—premised on rarity—Bernhardt taps into a structure that corresponds to the high-low dichotomies of contemporary painting. In her attempt to “catch them all,” Bernhardt samples many of the eighteen Pokémon “types” that allow players to categorize characters according to their powers and capabilities. In Surfing Pikachu (2023), the titular canary-yellow critter originally created by artist Atsuko Nishida bursts across the painting in action. The cyan-colored Wobbuffet squeezes its eyes shut and opens its mouth wide against a bright pink backdrop. Mimikyu is the subject of Dummy Doll Jealous Eyes (2023), facing the viewer with floppy lopsided ears and a crooked smile. Bernhardt situates these characters in movement: the multiple arms of the rosy Chansey are activated mid-air as if running forth; a leporine Cinderace is poised for battle. The framework of these paintings seems to contain the characters’ constantly morphing bodies, which are ready to move and leap into our own spheres at any moment. In the monumentally scaled Yeti Gaming (2021), several Pikachus and amoebic Dittos share space with Teddiursa and household items such as a bottle of Elmer’s glue, a jug of Clorox bleach, and rolls of toilet paper—familiar motifs in Bernhardt’s oeuvre.

A monograph on Bernhardt is forthcoming from David Zwirner Books in October 2023.

Katherine Bernhardt was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998 and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 2000.  

In 2018, the solo exhibition Katherine Bernhardt: Watermelon World was on view at the Mario Testino Museum (MATE) in Lima, Peru. The previous year, in 2017, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, presented FOCUS: Katherine Bernhardt. Also in 2017, the artist painted a sixty-foot-long mural entitled XXL Superflat Pancake for the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum. Bernhardt has created a permanent installation for Club Caribe, Cidra, Puerto Rico, and a pool painting at the Nautilus South Beach, Miami Beach (both 2015).

In her studio, Bernhardt finds inspiration from a Pokémon card. Photo captured by Whitten Sabbatini.

Her work has also been included in significant group exhibitions, such as We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz, Jewish Museum, New York (2020); Animal Farm, an exhibition curated by Sadie Laska at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2017); NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Museum, Miami, which traveled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (2015–2017); and Bad Touch, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago (2002). 

In 2022, David Zwirner, London presented an exhibition of new work by the artist, Katherine Bernhardt: why is a mushroom growing in my shower?

Work by the artist is found in prominent public and museum collections, including the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Rubell Museum, Miami; and San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas. Bernhardt lives and works in St. Louis.

LINK: Katherine Bernhardt dummy doll jealous eyes ditto pikachu beefy mimikyu rough play galarian rapid dash libra horn hp 270 vmax full art 

GAME ART: JULIUS HOFMANN'S VIDEO GAME-INSPIRED PAINTINGS

Glimpse into the surrealist universe of Julius Hofmann, a painter hailing from Göttingen, whose oeuvre encapsulates an unmistakable CGI finesse reminiscent of the pre-programmed, prescribed, predefined existence of genetic NPCs, that is, non-playable characters. Hofmann's geometrically abstracted forms invoke a sophisticated interplay of spatial depth, whilst his somber, earthy palette enlivened by rare eruptions of shocking pink and radiant purple transports the viewer into a realm of retro-futurism reminiscent of early video games. Hofmann's DIY aesthetic and glitch-infused visuals exude a spellbinding vitality, reflecting the dystopian societies imagined in popular games such as Grand Theft Auto. In his works, we witness a nuclear reactors exploding, amazons with sharp blades and RPG-like weapons, cops and robbers. Through his paintings, Hofmann challenges us to question the very core of the society we live in, highlighting the complexities of gaming's pervasive influence on contemporary aesthetics and the real meaning of a gamified life.

Julius Hofmann Oahh,Acrylic on canvas 74 4/5 × 74 4/5 in | 190 × 190 cm, 2022

Julius Hofmann, Escort, Acrylic on canvas 33 1/10 × 23 1/5 in | 84 × 59 cm, 

Julius Hofmann, Will of the Gods is Great Power - Galerie Kleindienst, installation shots, 2022

Julius Hofmann, Vertigini, Acrylic on linen 35 2/5 × 51 1/5 × 1 3/5 in | 90 × 130 × 4 cm, 2022

LINK: Julius Hofmann