Giovanna Olmos – How to Sell a Digital Painting
19 May – 23 July 2016
VIEW EXHIBITION: room.thecomposingrooms.com/07
room.thecomposingrooms.com is excited to present Giovanna Olmos’ ongoing series ‘How to
sell a digital painting’ in her first online exhibition.
‘How to sell a digital painting’ started as a performative action of
making and auctioning a ‘Selfie Painting’, something Olmos had started
doing of her own Selfies on her phone in 2014. With each step of her
performance she drew attention to the banal details of the process, especially
the implicit use of digital tools, with humour, transparency and sincerity.
The steps are clearly illustrated in the later project ‘How to buy a Digital
Portrait’(see below).
In both projects a image taken of ones self in a mirror is sent to Olmos by
email or text. She then paints the image on her iPhone, using the smartphone
app ‘Procreate Pocket’, proceeding to auction the work by asking the audience
to bid, or selling it by prearranged price – rising from under $100 to $350 per
commission due to popularity.
Having studied poetry, Olmos considers the works as part of her poetic
practice, as well as artworks and products. Considering the work in relation
to poetry is useful as a metaphor to further understand her works, and also
to cast new ways of thinking about the ‘digital object’, especially in
relation to uniqueness.
Giovanna Olmos (b. 1993 LA, USA) lives in New York, NY. She was born in Los
Angeles to an American father and a Swedish mother, and moved to
Sweden at the age of eight. She graduated last year from the NYU Gallatin
School of Individualised Study after studying poetry, philosophy, and digital
production; on a grant from NYU, she spent some months in Brazil studying
visual poetry. Only just 23, she is a published author and poet, as well as a
“digital painter,” creating portraits on her phone with the help of apps such
as Procreate Pocket, Brushes, and WeChat, resulting in a kind of mark-making
that transforms painterly gesture into digital form. In 2015, her work was
exhibited in Los Angeles and Berlin, as well as in an online exhibition held
by the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, during which she was the New
Museum/Rhizome Instagram resident.
www.giovannaolmos.com
∗∗∗Instructions for TCR/room∗∗∗
# How to buy a DIGITAL PORTRAIT
1. Download the app PayPal on your smartphone
2. Take a mirror selfie∗
3. Email the photo to olmosgiovanna@gmail.com
4. Mention room in the subject line for the special price
5. Pay Giovanna-Olmos USD$150 via PayPal∗∗
6. Receive your very own digital painting portrait made by
the artist with PROCREATE POCKET
∗Family and couples portraits also possible.
∗∗ a commission of $50 per order will go to
The Composing Rooms, which will be spent on art.
