Rafaël Rozendaal solo at MoMA New York

Light: Rafaël Rozendaal will be the artist’s first solo presentation in an American museum

Upstream Gallery proudly announces Rafaël Rozendaal’s (NL, 1980) solo presentation, showcasing his digital artworks on the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) monumental digital wall in the ground-floor Gund Lobby. The exhibition will be on view from November 16, 2024, through Spring 2025.

MoMA’s expansive, high-resolution screen—measuring over 7 meters high and wide—will feature a curated selection of 25 of Rozendaal's signature colorful and immersive digital works, each sampled for two to three minutes. Each work originates as a storyboard sketched on paper, which is then translated into code through a program that occupies only a few kilobytes (the whole exhibition is only ca 2 MB). The resulting final form is an autonomous website powered by that algorithm, generating the animation in real time. This American museum solo debut follows Rozendaal's recent first major European museum solo exhibition at the Folkwang Museum (Essen, Germany) in 2023.

Rozendaal initially made his name as an internet artist, pioneering the sale of websites through his "art websites sales contract," which is often regarded as a precursor to NFTs. These early websites attracted over 60 million unique visitors a year. Since 2021, Rozendaal achieved considerable success with his blockchain works (NFTs). Over the past decade, Rafae?l Rozendaal has also gained significant recognition for his prints, tapestries, and other art objects that translate the digital into the physical realm. Last year, for the first time in his career, Rozendaal rented a studio (previously, he needed nothing more than a laptop) and started painting. He arrived at a language for painting shaped by his background as a digital artist, bringing a fresh and unconventional approach to the traditional medium. His first solo exhibition of paintings, Manual, occurred at Upstream Gallery in Amsterdam from September to October this year.

Rozendaal is the third artist to receive a solo presentation on MoMA’s digital wall, following notable exhibitions by Refik Anadol and Leslie Thornton. Light: Rafaël Rozendaal is organized by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Director, Research and Development, and Amanda Forment, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design.

MoMA’s video wall, known as The Hyundai Card Digital Wall, highlights work by prominent new media artists and underscores MoMA’s longstanding commitment to supporting artists experimenting with emerging technologies.

More info here.

Image | Rafaël Rozendaal, Photomontage of the Gund Lobby at MoMA, featuring Implosion, 2023, Digital animation using generative algorithm. Courtesy: Upstream Gallery Amsterdam.

Publication date: 13 Nov '24