"Keepin' It Real" at HungryMan Gallery

Petra Cortright’s two Curtains were once digital compositions on a computer. Now the abstractions of neon-lit curtains hang from the ceiling of HungryMan Gallery. The faint images are printed on cloth that’s so thin, these “curtains” let light pass through them rather than obscuring it.

Cortright’s piece epitomizes Robin Juan’s curatorial premise: An increasing number of artworks have digital lives that parallel their physical existence. Though this topic is big enough for its own show, the overly ambitious “Keepin’ It Real” also labors to explore intellectual property, digital appropriation and the phenomenon of curating via e-mail—with a mere eight works.

The selections complement each other, at least. Derek Frech and Bob Myaing’s projected GIF animates the waves from one of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s sublime black-and-white seascape photographs, its artificial realism calling to mind what Sugimoto must have seen as he took the photo. Thomson Dryjanski’s black-and-white digital photo Statue references an art-historical precedent as well, giving a weathered caryatid of a bearded biblical figure a new incarnation. Within the context of the show, the statue is free from the elements, subject only to broken links and digital rot.

Mac Katter also riffs on an appropriated photo, layering squiggly motion lines in ’80s pinks and blues over a dynamic black-and-white portrait of a skateboarder, mid–hand plant. Apart from its presence on the artist’s blog, the work exists as this exhibition’s postcard, spotlighting the different manifestations a digital work can take.