GAMESCENES

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

GAME ART: ASHLEY ANDERSON, INTERMEDIA ARTIST

 

Ashley Anderson, Study for Still Life with Skull and Panties, acrylic on canvas, 2022, 11 x 85 inches

Ashley Anderson, Still Life with Skull and Panties, acrylic on canvas, 2023, 24 x 20 inches

 

Pixel art, with its roots in early video games and computer graphics, has emerged as a potent and compelling force in contemporary painting, offering a fresh and dynamic approach to the medium that reimagines the language of traditional art forms. Pixel art's use of a small color palette and precise, modular, scalable compositions creates a sense of play and experimentation that is at once nostalgic and contemporary. The canvas becomes a portal to the past and the present, creating a powerful sense of anachronism. The pixels themselves are the building blocks of the image, giving the artist a remarkable degree of control over the visual structure of the work. Through this precise, pixel-based approach, the artist is able to convey a remarkable level of detail and intricacy, which creates a sense of immersion for the viewer, drawing them in with its seductive combination of structure and pattern.

Pixel art operates in a sort of liminal space between digital and analog media, combining the handmade with the machinic. The artist working with pixel art within a system of rules and limitations imposed by the pixel grid, yet also imbues each individual pixel with a sense of individual character and idiosyncrasy, creating a unique visual language that is both systematic and expressive. Pixel art's embrace of the computer as a creative tool challenges conventional notions of painting, highlighting the inherent tensions between the handmade and the digital. As the pixel becomes the elemental block of the image, the artist must contend with questions of scale and resolution, as well as the inherently grid-like nature of the medium. Yet, in spite of these limitations, pixel art is able to produce works that are lush and evocative, with a sense of tactility and texture that belies its digital origins.

One of the most interesting and talented artists working with the medium of video game and painting in the style of pixel art is Ashley Anderson. Currently based in Atlanta, Georgia, Anderson has had a varied and fascinating journey, marked by an extensive range of professional roles and personal experiences. He is a practitioner of a special kind of intermedia art, a term that indicates a set of artworks and practices blurring the boundaries between traditional art forms, such as painting, sculpture, literature, music, theater, dance, video game and film. Moreover, the term "intermedia" reflects the idea that these works exist in the space between different media, rather than conforming to any one particular medium.

Point in case. Consider this example:

Ashley Anderson, Clouds, oil on canvas, 2015

Anderson's Clouds - a clear reference to Cory Arcangel's appropriation of Super Mario Bros (2002) via modding - was created by mixing cyanotype and pixel art. Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that uses a photosensitive solution containing iron compounds, typically ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, which is coated onto paper or fabric. When exposed to ultraviolet light, the iron compounds are reduced to a ferrous state, creating a blue-colored image. The process was developed in the mid-19th century and was used for engineering and architectural blueprints, but it also gained popularity as an artistic medium. Today, cyanotype is often used by photographers and artists for its unique blue tones and experimental potential. In this case, it's perfect to evoke the sense of artificial blue of the original video game appropriated by Arcangel and now recontextualized through a different technique.

One of my all time favorite of his is the series Shinobi Marilyn (2012) after Andy Warhol

Ashley Anderson, Elephant Woman #2, 2012, 9-piece gel transfer print on panel, 12 x 12 inches

Now, what happens when you mix Clouds with Marylin?

Ashley Anderson, Super Mario Clouds, Digital collage print, 2012 Edition of 3 24 x 24 inches

More pixel work by Anderson is available here.

Ashley Anderson: Growing up in a small town in central Georgia that bore the scars of Sherman's infamous march to the sea, the artist developed an early appreciation for the legacies of history and the interplay between past and present. With family members who contributed to the building of America's infrastructure, challenged racial barriers, and worked in public service, the Anderson's upbringing instilled a deep sense of social awareness and responsibility. Drawing on a diverse range of cultural influences, his paintings dispaly a playful and idiosyncratic aesthetic that bridges the realms of popular culture and high art. Inspired by everything from classic Warner Brothers cartoons to the visionary science-fiction of Moebius, Anderson has developed a style that defies easy categorization. Anchored by a deep respect for Modernist painting and an abiding fascination with the creative possibilities of technology, the artist's work is marked by a restless and inventive spirit. In an unexpected twist of fate, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the artist into freelancing, providing a newfound sense of creative freedom and the opportunity to fully pursue their artistic passions. Through their various professional roles and life experiences, Anderson has remained steadfast in their commitment to the transformative power of art, guided by their father's sage advice to "support your art until it can support you!"

LINK: Ashley Anderson (All images courtesy of the Artist)

GAME ART: MATEUSZ SARZYNSKI'S GAME PAINTINGS

If you follow GameScenes, you probably know that I am fascinated by artists who paint video games, that is, incorporate game aesthetics, tropes, or interfaces, in their artworks. The canvas an an ersatz screen. Some paint screenshots, while other appropriate and recontextualize game motifs and other elements within their compositions. This is why I'm sharing a handful of works by Polish artist Mateusz Sarzynski, whose paintings are often inspired by video games such as Grand Theft Auto V or first-person shooters, which he considers they byproduct of the inner violence and exploitation of capitalism.

Mateusz Sarzynski – Untitled 17, 2022 – Oil on canvas

Mateusz Sarzynski (Biłgoraj, Poland 1990) graduated from the Architecture Department of the Cracow University of Technology and then in graphic design from the University of Fine Arts, also in Cracow. During his artistic career, he has worked in a variety of media, including painting, tattooing, and graphic design.

LINK: Mateusz Sarzynski (Instagram link)

GAME ART: STEPHEN WONG'S RACING GAME PAINTINGS

Stephen Wong, The Torii (Playstation 3: Initial D) (2008). Oil on canvas. 140 x 210 cm. Courtesy the artist.

Stephen Wong, The Tree and Mountain (2008). Oil on canvas. 140 x 210 cm. Courtesy the artist.

Stephen Wong, The hill along the road, (2008). Oil on canvas. 140 x 210 cm. Courtesy the artist.

Wong Chun Hei Stephen began painting landscapes from video games around 2008, when he was still a student. He also appropriates vista and scenarios from Google Earth as source material (see the Grand Tour in Google Earth and Wander in Google Earths series). I love the toy racing cars on top of some driving paintings, like this one.

Born in 1986, Wong Chun Hei Stephen graduated from the Fine Art Department (CUHK) in 2008. Wong’s paintings are focused on natural landscape scenery. His early paintings are sourced from scenes from video games in order to highlight the visual impact of virtual worlds. In recent years, Wong goes to natural parts of Hong Kong and paints in open air. By adding his own imagination, the paintings reveal the relationship between mankind and nature. Wong Chun Hei has held a number of solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, and his works are collected by local and foreign collectors, as well as institutions like the Hong Kong Museum of Art. 

LINK: Stephen Wong

EVENT: MICHEL MAJERUS, DATA STREAMING (NOVEMBER 12 2022 - FEBRUARY 12 2023, HAMBURG, GERMANY)

Michel Majerus, MoM Block Nr. 76 (ca. 2000), Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 180cm, Private Collection, Foto: Jens Ziehe, Berlin, © Michel Majerus Estate

Michel Majerus
DATA STREAMING
November 12, 2022–February 12, 2023

Kunstverein in Hamburg
Kunstverein in Hamburg
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg, Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 12–6pm

press release

DATA STREAMING features a series of works by Michel Majerus (1967–2002), produced during the latter stages of his career, in which he intensively negotiated the rising prominence of the digital within late-1990s and early-2000s visual culture. In this body of work, Majerus overlays figurative and abstract painterly elements drawn from the emerging digital image-production technologies of the time, adopting the formal language, capabilities, and motifs of post-production software such as Adobe Photoshop and translating them to canvas.

As an avid user of technology and an active participant in digital culture, Majerus features a number of icons, both real and virtual, from video games, animation, and hacking in his work—for instance, he depicts the hacker Tron (1972–1998), and characters from Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario, among others. Combining such references with a wider range of imagery sampled from contemporary art and art history, he fuses an intricate network of visual and thematic references with methods of image-production to create smaller-format, large-scale, or multi-panel paintings.

DATA STREAMING also includes Majerus’ key installation “the space is where you’ll find it” (2000), centrally positioned within the exhibition. This immersive installation exemplifies Majerus’ synthesis of new and existing aesthetic strategies from the worlds of painting, installation, and conceptual art, enveloping viewers in an analogue cosmos of digital images. By bringing paintings and installation together in the present, DATA STREAMING asks how to view, understand, and interpret Majerus’ oeuvre through the prism of technological and artistic developments made in the last 20 years.

DATA STREAMING is part of a series of exhibitions that will look at Michel Majerus’ oeuvre anew to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the artist’s passing, with solo presentations hosted at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, the Michel Majerus Estate, and at neugerriemschneider. In parallel, thirteen museums throughout Germany will showcase works by Michel Majerus from their collections.

LINK: DATA STREAMING

ARTICLE: VIDEO GAMES, COSMOLOGY, KABBALAH: SUZANNE TREISTER’S INSPIRATIONS (FRIEZE, NOVEMBER 2022)

Must read interview with Game Art pioneer Susanne Treister

Excerpt:

GAME ART: JULIEN NGUYEN'S VIDEO GAME INSPIRED PAINTINGS

Julien Nguyen, Executive Solutions 2017, Oil and encaustic on linen mounted on panel, 63¼ × 69 inches; 161 × 175 cm, source

Julien Nguyen is a 31 year old painter from Hermosa Beach, California. Here's an interesting tidbit from a 2021 interview in the New York Times with Kate Dwyer:

See more video game-painting connections.

LINK: An Artist Who Blurs Video Games and Italian Renaissance