Gray Area is pleased to premiere the very first exhibition in our new Gallery space: Gardens of FELT Zine Delights, by internet art collective FELT Zine.
Join us on August 25th for an opening celebration from 7-10 PM PDT. Gray Area Gallery will be open for regular gallery hours beginning Tuesday, August 30th.
Gray Area is pleased to present Gardens of FELT Zine Delights, a special exhibition of artwork by experimental internet artist collective FELT Zine. The show consists of a simulated world, video series, NFT collection, and interactive experience inspired by classic icons from Hieronymus Bosch’s famed triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490 – 1510).
Gardens of FELT Zine Delights stemmed from a collaboration between Mark Sabb (Concept and AI Art), Ty Vadovich (3D Artist), and Max Bochman (Web3 Developer). Though originally conceived as a series of 3D-rendered sculptures and animations to be released as a collection of NFTs, has evolved into a fully developed interactive world built using a video game engine. In this fantastic environment, FELT Zine brings imagery that has been solidified in both art and popular cultural history into a contemporary canon with current visual vernacular that speaks to modern experiences with screens: meme aesthetics, video game graphics, and algorithmic feed-space.
Playing cards and their four suits—diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs—take a central role in Gardens of FELT Zine Delights. In much art during Bosch’s time, each of the playing card suits connotated strict religious and patriarchal themes. Breaking out of this context, FELT Zine disrupts the heavy-handed imagery in Bosch’s work with simulated, internet-culture aesthetic references with specific nods to the vaporwave movement—of which FELT Zine was a founding conceiver in the late aughts—such as 3D tropical plants, neon color palettes, and shiny texture renders.
In each video and still image output from the wider Gardens universe, certain content imagery—such as background textures—are fully generated by AI with no editing or interference from FELT Zine artists. Speaking to new modes of image-making taking hold of online communities across social media, particularly the rising popularity of artificial intelligence and machine vision tools like Open AI’s DALL-E, the Gardens of FELT Zine Delights is a modern visual culture touchstone for future web3 arts communities.
Visit the Gray Area Gallery during anytime during our regular gallery hours.
About FELT Zine:
FELT Zine is an experimental internet artist collective that produces web3 and metaverse projects rooted in the visionary work of underground cultural catalysts. FELT Zine hosts IRL art parties and curates exhibitions around the world. The collective was founded in 2011 as an independent fashion magazine, soon after transitioning into an art collective, and eventually 3D and digital art NFTs. @FeltZine / @feltzine / feltzine.us
Core Members:
Mark Sabb, is an artist, curator, and creative technologist. Mark is the founder of FELT Zine, an experimental internet artist collective that produces web3 and metaverse projects including NFTs. He was previously the Senior Director of Innovation at the Museum of the African Diaspora and established the Museum’s digital presence along with pioneering on-site AR/VR implementations. @markdigitalhd / @markdigitalhd
Devon Moore aka Dev Moore is a net artist, curator, creative technologist, and member of the FELT Zine collective. Dev’s work incorporates technology, modern-day youth experiences, personhood, music culture, and more all while referencing components of tech culture. @devdmoore / @devdmoore
Jawn Billetes, the internet’s “cyber chola,” creates 3D art, crypto-based NFT art, and Virtual Reality simulations that center around ideas born out of the zeitgeist of universal Narco culture & American culture, while exploring the juxtapositions between luxury, wealth, and self-actualization. @jawndiegoreyes / @jawndiegoreyes
About Gray Area:
Gray Area is a 21st-century countercultural hub catalyzing creative action for social transformation. Our mission is to cultivate, sustain, and amplify a community of creative practitioners who apply antidisciplinary practice — including art, technology, science, and the humanities — towards engaging with the complex challenges facing our world. Through public events, education, incubation, and research, we maintain a platform that enables creators of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to transcend boundaries within deep artistic collaboration and gain agency to impact the world through category-defying work.
About the Gallery:
Gray Area Gallery is a permanent exhibition space within Gray Area’s current home in the historic Grand Theater on Mission Street, free and open to the public from 12-7 PM on Tuesdays and from 12-4 PM Wednesdays and Thursdays.