Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/641424
172 CULTURED #CULTUREDMAG S T E V E N S A C K S @BITFORMS WEB APPLICATIONS Steven Sacks owns bitforms, a 15- year-old gallery on New York's Lower East Side that trades in New Media art and its various subsects. Sacks keeps particular tabs on innovation in the art- making process. "The use of code in terms of generative and interactive work—work that is living versus looping—is a serious innovation when you think about how someone looks at a piece of art," he says. BROWSING HISTORY When Sacks opened bitforms gallery in 2001, the world of New Media art was just starting to reach prominence. Now, bitforms is something of an institution in a hugely popular field. "MoMA just acquired Beryl Korot's [an artist on bitforms' roster] Text and Commentary, which is a 1976 multi-channel video installation that was really progressive at the time. It is important for me, as a gallerist, to work with artists who were pushing it at an early stage." WHEN IT CLICKED "In 2000 and 2001, 'BitStreams' opened at the Whitney, '010101' at SFMOMA and 'Digital: Printmaking Now' at the Brooklyn Museum. That trio of shows appeared at the time when I was resigning from a business I had started called Digital Pulp—a new breed ad agency that worked with the dotcoms. Those shows were the impetus for me thinking about having a gallery devoted to that medium." D I S @DISMAGAZINE WHEN IT CLICKED The post-Internet art collective first grabbed headlines in 2011 with their Kim Kar- dashian Kontest during Art Basel Miami Beach. The spectacle, done in partnership with MoMA PS1 as well as long-time collaborators Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin, caused a sensation when a slew of con- toured celebrity look-a-likes flooded into the Mon- drian hotel for an outlandish beauty pageant. The performance-based project, which drew attention to DIS' special brand of social commentary and guerilla tactics, gave the art world a taste of what founders Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso and David Toro had up their sleeves. This summer, DIS will curate the Berlin Biennale, which will undoubtedly go just as viral as their previous efforts. BY THE NUMBERS With more than 92,000 followers on Instagram, DIS is able to quickly disseminate their unique brand of social experimentation, whether that is a snap from their latest performance or a kinky collaboration with a fashion brand. P E T R A C O L L I N S @PETRAFCOLLINS WEB APPLICATIONS Petra Collins decodes a generation full of digital lives into art. Whether it's using chat argot for neons, taking on censorship in social media, photographing youthful caprice or documenting teenage girls' selfie exploration, Collins both explores and promotes youth culture and its anxious beauty. BROWSING HISTORY Collins curates The Ardorous, an online art collective she founded when she was in high school as a platform to collaborate with female artists. She has published a book of her photographs called "Discharge" (Capricious) and curated "Babe" (Prestel), a tome about female artists. Collins has courted controversy with a menstruating vagina T-shirt commissioned by American Apparel and challenged Instagram's nudity policies (resulting in her getting temporarily banned from the app). Oh, and Collins recently made an appearance on the Amazon series Transparent. All this, and she just turned 23. WHEN IT CLICKED After training as famed erotic photographer Richard Kern's mentee, Collins was initially recognized for her soft, beautiful images for publications like Rookie, Vice and Purple. Though she still takes lots of pictures—a recent campaign for Adidas Stellasport, a cover shoot with Selena Gomez for Wonderland, the Levi's lookbook—and has a potent catalog of paintings and neon art, we have a hunch that the best of Collins' work is yet to come. "Instagram is engaging the next generation of collectors. People have stumbled across our feed, and they want to be educated by us." • • U N I T L O N D O N @THEUNITLONDON WHEN IT CLICKED Joe Kennedy and Jonny Burt, founders of Unit London, are rethinking the traditional art gallery model. Like many, they connect to a broader audience (53,000 fol- lowers and counting) via Instagram, and are finding new po- tential collectors with every post. "It's a really powerful tool for the gallery and a huge part of our success," says Burt. "It's grown to be our biggest marketing platform." EARLY ADOPTERS "Instagram is engaging the next genera- tion of collectors," says Burt. "People have stumbled across our feed, and they want to be educated by us. As a result of nurturing that engagement over time, they have converted into collectors. That journey has happened purely through Instagram." • • PHOTO BY TONY PATTERSON, COURTESY UNIT LONDON; PETRA COLLINS; MICHAEL CLINARD, COURTESY STEVEN SACKS Josh Kline's How Much Is That Intern in the Window?