FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 2023

New Santa Monica Art Museum Introduces Third Street Promenade to Regional Artists & Evolving Multimedia Art Experiences with Debut During Frieze Week Los Angeles & Ongoing Exhibition

With its first regional exhibition Looking West & programming during Frieze Week, SMAM brings together artists and creative partners to define the role of the contemporary art museum & raise funds for its future 

Santa Monica, CA – The new Santa Monica Art Museum (SMAM) debuts its first multimedia and evolving art experience and exhibition to the public, inviting visitors and artists to see and participate in Los Angeles’s newest art ecosystem with Looking West, on view now after debuting during Frieze Week Los Angeles. 

In December 2022, museum director Christoph Rahofer opened the 7,000 square foot museum along Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade with intentionally blank walls, allocating space and rooms to regional artists invited to participate and help define what the museum should be and shape the future of art in California. 

Now, the space has evolved into the current exhibition Looking West, titled by co-curator Tom Venditti, featuring several artists working on the West Coast as well as artists Daniel Canogar and Siebren Versteeg represented by bitforms gallery. Also part of the exhibition is a digital art collection curated by SuperRare, and VR (virtual reality) exhibitions curated by leaders in the genre Vortic. The exhibition has been extended through April 9, 2023. 

As the museum continues to evolve, stay tuned for more details regarding exhibition news related to SMAM’s ongoing digital art program, activations, and future events. To learn more about the museum’s programming during Frieze Week, please visit here. 

Looking West

Throughout the museum, visitors are invited to see the regional exhibition Looking West, featuring a diverse array of work from both emerging and established artists. These artists include: renowned British-American artist Russell Young, presenting selections of silk screen paintings from his iconic series WEST; Gretchen Andrew’s mixed media Vision Boards; Joachim Castañeda’s assemblage made from unconventional materials; Casey Baden’s mixed-media tapestries and weavings; Daniel Sackheim’s film noir-inspired street photography; and Lindsey Price’s surreal collage paintings. Other artists include: Daniel Canogar, Dhiren Dasu, Feldsott, Brett Foraker, Jessica Goehring, Bob Landström, Tom Pazderka, Max Rippon, Nathan See, Philip Vaughan, Siebren Versteeg, Tatiana Wills, and Jody Zellen. Together, these artists add an evolving and important regional voice to the conversation about contemporary art in California through a variety of thematic explorations. 

Daniel Canogar, Troposphere, 2017, from the series Echo Flexible, LED tiles, steel, computer, cables, software, internet connection, 40 x 29.6 x 21 in / 101.6 x 75.2 x 53.3 cm, courtesy bitforms gallery

Artist Showcase With bitforms gallery

SMAM is pleased to be partnering with Steven Sacks of bitforms gallery to exhibit artists Daniel Canogar and Siebren Versteeg in our inaugural exhibition Looking West. Daniel Canogar is a multidisciplinary artist who works in photography, video, sculpture, and installation. Canogar reclaims discarded technologies from junkyards and recycling centers—veritable cemeteries for consumer electronics—to examine the short life expectancy of consumer electronics that are so readily cast away. Siebren Versteeg is known for his painting and video works created through digital processes. His multivalent practice responds to the technology of our time and the way we consume and deploy those technologies.

SuperRare x Santa Monica Art Museum

SupeRare and SMAM have collaborated to present a collection of 8 SuperRare artists to be exhibited during the opening of the museum in tandem with Frieze LA this February 2023. All 8 artworks will be physically exhibited at the museum and for sale exclusively on SuperRare. Curated by Paloma Rodriguez. 

These artists include: Aditya, James Hayman, Eric Kerr, Bob Landström, Lindsey Price, Daniel Sackheim, Tatiana Wills, and Russell Young. 

Fever Dream, courtesy Vortic Curated

VR Exhibitions With Vortic Curated

Vortic Curated is a new project which encourages a symbiotic collaboration between curators, artists and Vortic’s digital platform to create an exceptional programme of exhibitions and artist projects that push the boundaries of a virtual reality viewing experience. Exhibitions will include “Fever Dream” curated by Daria Borisova, featuring the works of 13 international artists; “Tim Stoner: Toil Stories” curated by Louis Blanc-Francard; “What Lies Beneath” curated by Direlia Lazo; and its newest show, “baby hair and afros” (meditations on hair) curated by Alayo Akinkugbe. 

What is an Art Museum?

Please join SMAM on Friday, Feb. 17th, for 3 panel discussions about immersive experiences, digital art, and the future of the Santa Monica Art Museum. Starting from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM.

Immersive Art – 2:00 – 2:45 pm

The Santa Monica Museum of Art was created to stand at a crossroads of traditional presentations of art and immersive experience. This panel brings together artists, companies, and programs pushing boundaries in immersive space using VR and AR technologies. Imogen Hare, Gazell.io & Gazelli Art House will discuss the state the future of immersive art with Vortic VR and artists.

NFTs with Physical Practices – 3:00 – 3:45 pm

Aubrie Wienholt, founder of PR For Artists, artist Russell Young, and Casey Coyle, art advisor at SuperRare, discuss how artists with physical practices navigate the digital art market and what NFTs can offer to empower their careers.

The Future of Art Museums – 4:00 – 4:45 pm

Join us at the Santa Monica Art Museum for an exciting discussion about the future of the museum with Christoph Rahofer, Corey Madden, Merel van Helsdingen, and Jesse Damiani.

RSVP Required

Crypto Mermaids & Mimosas – Powered By Tezos

Saturday, Feb 18th, Discussion Panels, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Start off your Frieze weekend with the Crypto Mermaids at the Santa Monica Art Museum! Powered by Tezos with support for the NFT Tuesday community.

Join us for complimentary mimosas and panel discussions about empowerment and feminism in Web3.

Crypto Mermaids support crypto education for those who feel isolated from Web3. We are an open community demystifying male-dominated knowledge topics in a fun, female, and approachable way. We will be celebrating with important voices in Web3 feminism and knowledge empowerment.

Speaker list being updated daily. 

Mermaids & Mimosa Welcome – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Crypto Mermaids support crypto education for those who feel isolated from Web3. We are an open community demystifying male-dominated knowledge topics in a fun, female, and approachable way. We will be celebrating with important voices in Web3 feminism and knowledge empowerment.

Community Formation as a Form of Art and Activism – 1:00 – 1:45 PM

Daniel Kantor, Community Archivist
Cody Edison, NFTuesday Founder
Michael McClure, Blokhaus
Dina Chang, Setta Studio
Moderated by Mia Stern from Crypto Mermaids.

Expanded.art NFT Feminism – 2:00 – 2:45 PM

Margaret Murphy, Expanded Art
Anika Meier, writer and curator
Connie Bakshi, artist
Gretchen Andrew, artist

RSVP Required

Santa Monica Art Museum Opening Reception + Looking West Afterparty at 1212

Saturday, Feb. 18th, 5:00 – 9:00 PM at SMAM and 9:00 PM onward at 1212 Santa Monica. 

From 5:00 – 9:00 PM, join us at the Santa Monica Art Museum to celebrate the new museum’s opening to the public with its inaugural contemporary fine art exhibition Looking West. There will be complimentary wine and spirits. 

At 9:00 PM, visitors will walk across the promenade to the Looking West Afterparty hosted by 1212 Santa Monica to continue the celebrations.  

RSVP Required

About bitforms gallery

Founded in November 2001, bitforms gallery represents established, mid-career, and emerging artists critically engaged with new technologies. Spanning the rich history of media art through its current developments, the gallery’s program offers an incisive perspective on the fields of digital, internet, time-based, and new media art forms. Since 2020, bitforms gallery has maintained a satellite location in San Francisco at Minnesota Street Project that became permanent in 2021. Supporting and advocating for the collection of ephemeral, time-based, and digital artworks since its founding, bitforms gallery artists are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Center for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, among other institutions internationally. 

About SuperRare

Founded in 2018, SuperRare is a pioneering, curated marketplace for high quality NFT artworks, built on the Ethereum blockchain. Nearly $200M worth of NFT-based artworks, also known as ‘CryptoArt’, have been bought and sold on the platform, with artists earning revenue on both original sales and resales. A destination for digital discovery and with the unique proposal of only single editions, SuperRare was created with the goal of empowering the next generation of artists through technology and has facilitated artists and collectors around the world to sell and purchase digital artwork.

SuperRare recently launched the new $RARE curation token, converting the SuperRare NFT marketplace into a community governed network of galleries, decided on by community vote.

About Vortic & Vortic Curated

Vortic is the sustainable digital exhibition ecosystem for the art world, specifically designed for galleries, institutions and collectors. Vortic enables an easy and accessible solution in the curation and sharing of exceptional art viewing experiences. By harnessing our revolutionary 3D, AR and VR technology, we create new ways to be and interact with art – an immersive experience that brings exhibitions and artworks to you, wherever you may be. Discover the latest exhibitions from many of the world’s leading galleries, artists and institutions – follow us on Instagram @vortic.art and sign up to our newsletter.  

Vortic Curated is a platform to showcase curatorial and artistic talent. It encourages exciting dialogues between different practices, resulting in a diverse programme of exhibitions within Vortic’s ecosystem, to cultivate an engaged and interactive community. For each iteration of the project, guest curators and artists are invited to utilise the capabilities of Vortic’s dynamic XR technology to realise commercial exhibitions conceived especially for the digital space, with the hope of opening up new opportunities to artists and curators for visibility and collaboration. Find out more about Vortic Curated on vortic.art