March 5–8 2015
Booth 851
The Armory Show
Pier 94
New York, NY
Upstream Gallery is pleased to present the work of artist Rafaël Rozendaal at The Armory Show 2015.
Rafaël Rozendaal (b. 1980) is a Brazilian-Dutch artist based in New York. Creating artworks in the form of websites since 2001, he is a pioneer in the field of web art. His web-based works, which are publicly accessible even when privately owned, receive over 32 million hits on a yearly base. Rozendaal’s work has been exhibited at places such as the Centre Pompidou, the Venice Biennial and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In February, his work much better than this .com was shown on Times Square’s electronic billboards from 11:57pm to midnight each night.
In his artistic practice, Rozendaal actively investigates the endless possibilities the Internet has to offer. Many of his works are interactive, putting the viewer in charge of creating the composition. While undeniably contemporary, many of his websites explicitly relate to art historical movements from the 20th century such as Cubism and Abstract Expressionism.
While belonging to the generation of artists who grew up with the Internet and for whom a digital mindset is completely natural, Rozendaal is also experimenting with ways in which the concept of his web-based pieces can be translated into offline works and tangible objects. His research has resulted in interactive installations but also in exploring the medium of lenticular paintings, a technique that has been described as “offline GIF animation.” These lenticulars are a new direction in Rozendaal’s work, offering possibilities of movement and interaction with color and light in physical shapes.
In an interview with Wired, Rozendaal explains that “a lenticular painting is like a very specialized single purpose computer… As you stand in front of it, it is computing an equation. The algorithm consists of the four frames, the possible outcomes are infinite. It’s a computer that does not need electricity to run.”
At this years Armory Fair, Upstream Gallery will present a combination of lenticular paintings and websites. Upstream Gallery is an Amsterdam-based internationally oriented gallery specializing in contemporary art, founded in 2003. The gallery has been working with Rozendaal since 2013 and presented his solo show External Memory in 2014.
Upstream Gallery
Van Ostadestraat 294
1073 TW Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 0 20 428 428 4