It's summertime! The weather is hot and hazy, my mood is languid and lazy, and galleries are operating under shortened summer hours—making it impossible for me to check out any new shows. Fortunately, The Hole's new location on the Bowery is open on Saturdays, so I was able to check out :), the delightful, first New York solo exhibiton of Miami collaborative FriendsWithYou. Much like summery, beach reading, the exhibit is a light, fun, guilty pleasure, packed with "smiling puddles on the gallery floor... giggle sticks, smirking smoke flumes, splat-happy wall works and a grinning ghost or two," (from show's press release).
The gallery's columns are playfully painted in candy stripes. The array of colorful, cutesy characters include: a blue and white striped canvas with a pair of beady eyes suspiciously peeping out; two adorable happy faces that spin around and around; a flat, black circle adorned with saucer-like eyes that hypnotically glide left and right; side-by-side, rectangular, white and black faces that alternately slide up and down; a face formed by three dashes creating simple eyes and a mouth on a large canvas covered in vertical, barcode-like lines; and a gigantic, inflatable, candy-like sculpture that fills up the back-right-corner gallery.
FriendsWithYou is a collaborative formed in 2002 by Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III with the mission "to spread the idea of Magic, Luck and Friendship around the world." While their charming and twee works may not resemble typical fine art gallery fare, their objects "are meant to trigger the buried, neglected urges and yearnings that a seasoned art viewer may not expect to have activated; playfulness, laughter and inquisitiveness."
:) will put a smile on your face with its super-happy-funtime humor, whimsy, and sweetness. With its "interactive, experiential wonderland of pop-straction and participation" FriendsWithYou aims "to spread its happy meassage" and "become Friends-With-You!" Learn more at theholenyc.com and at the artists' website friendswithyou.com. Through August 6th.
For maximum cuteness, click here for images of FriendsWithYou's Rainbow City, which was on view at the High Line at West 30th Street and 10th Avenue from June 8th - July 5th.
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