Faith Holland, “Visual Orgasms” (courtesy Transfer Gallery)
Everybody’s favorite digital image file type (sorry, PNGs) turns 30 this year, and to mark the occasion 30 Graphics Interchange Format (or GIF) artists will show their loopy, glitchy, colorful, pixelated, and otherwise whimsical work beginning Saturday, June 17.
TIME_FRAME, an exhibition co-curated by Giphy, Wallplay, Rhizome, and Transfer Gallery, will include works by artists Carla Gannis, Lorna Mills, Peter Burr, Yoshi Sodeoka, and more. Alongside their animated art, the show will feature interactive installations, canonical GIFs from the format’s history, and VR experiences.
In addition to the works on view, the five-day exhibition will feature plenty of special programming, including a June 17 panel moderated by Rhizome Executive Director Zachary Kaplan and featuring the artists Marisa Olson, Faith Holland, and Molly Soda discussing the past, present, and future of the GIF format.
On the afternoon of Sunday, June 18, artist and programmer Jeffrey Alan Scudder will demonstrate some of his homespun digital painting and audio software.
And on the evening of Tuesday, June 20, Atlas Obscura and Giphy will offer a crash course on internet archaeology, schooling attendees on how to discover forgotten pockets of the web and perhaps track down heretofore under-appreciated early GIFs.
Perhaps most importantly — especially for non-GIF artists interested in injecting some movement into their work — Wallplay will hold an interactive workshop on Wednesday, June 21 to help artists make their static works into GIFs. Participants will help keep the beloved image format fresh and relevant well into its thirtysomethings.
When: Saturday, June 17–Thursday, June 22
Where: Gallery 151 (245 West 14th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
More info here.
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