“Viruses, like art, need a host. Preferably a popular one”. James Hoff presents his new exhibition “Skywiper” at Callicoon Fine Arts in New York. The exhibition will be on view from November 2nd to December 21st, 2014.
His artworks are the result of infection by computer virus that finds its host in the space of painting and of the gallery. The resulting works extend the definitions of conceptual art into the contemporary realms of interconnectivity.
The process of the artist to create his artwork is the following: Hoff begins with a blank surface. The digital image of a blank canvas and a monochromatic support surface is infected by a computer virus and the consequent distorted image is realized as a new painting. The “infection” process produces an abstract image, with colors and forms. The artist uses the Stuxnet and Skywiper codes, both of which known for acts of cyber espionage.
But Hoff doesn’t limit his work to the paintings, the exhibition space itself is infected by the virus too. Indeed, the artist removes sections of dry wall whose shape is determined by the glitch caused by the virus in a jpeg image of the gallery wall.
Callicoon Fine Arts – 49 Delancey Street – New York