Curators Kyle Chayka and Marina Galperina will present National #Selfie Portrait Gallery, an installation of 19 emerging artists from the EU and the US who have created short-form videos engaging with the medium of the “selfie,” the omnipresent slang for digital self-portraits found across all social networks. Self-portraiture has a long artistic heritage, with devotees including Rembrandt, the compulsive self-documentarian, Courbet, who styled himself a suave Bohemian, and van Gogh, the fragile genius, bandaged at the ear. Today, the genre belongs to anyone with a camera. Self-portraiture is the most democratic creative medium available, both as a performative outlet for the social self and an intimate vehicle of personal catharsis, for artists and non-artists alike.

Installed on two screens, National #Selfie Portrait Gallery will display a rotating series of short videos commissioned for the project, each 30 seconds or less in length. The artists, including Bunny Rogers, Rollin Leonard, Jayson Musson (Hennessy Youngman), Yung Jake, Leslie Kulesh, and Jesse Darling, were selected specifically for their established practices, ranging from poetic internet confessionals to humorous commentaries on exhibitionism and experimental new-media portraiture. The artist videos will be on sale for $500 in editions of five for the duration of the fair.

Also on display will be an interactive app and installation created by Kim Asendorf and Ole Fach allowing Moving Image visitors to take their own warped meta-selfies, suitable for avatar use and sharing everywhere. The app will also be sold in an exclusive edition.

National #Selfie Portrait Gallery explores the range of performativity, personality, authenticity, and expression inherent in the #selfie form, from the instant gratification of its creation to the popularity contests of its publication. The #selfie is as omnipresent as the smartphone and as diverse as humanity itself. Visitors will also be encouraged to contribute to the discussion by taking their own Instagram or Vine selfies and tagging them #NationalSelfiePortraitGallery.

Curators:
Kyle Chayka is the curator of Dying on Stage: New Painting in New York at Garis and Hahn Gallery in New York City, co-curator of Shortest Video Art Ever Sold at Moving Image Art Fair New York 2013, and a freelance writer for publications including the New York Observer, Pacific Standard, and Modern Painters.

Marina Galperina is a co-curator of Shortest Video Art Ever Sold at Moving Image Art Fair New York 2013 and new media and video art pop-up shows around Brooklyn. She is the Managing Editor of culture/news site ANIMAL New York and a freelance writer for ARTnews, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, BAKU, and Candy.

Contact information:
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