EXHIBITION REVIEW: Toward Our Digital Futures, a review of @socialdistancegallery
Abstract
Our engagement with art has fundamentally shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic. As museums and galleries shut down or severely reduced the number of visitors to contain the spread of the virus, the in-person viewing experience of art was but another halted aspect of daily life. Increasingly, the art-viewing public turned toward Instagram and other visual social media platforms. Long used by artists for networking and to reach a wider audience for their work, Instagram has emerged as a pivotal resource (especially for young artists) to connect in a time of limited in-person interaction. For graduating BFA and MFA art students, this has meant the loss of their thesis exhibition. This event is a rite of passage in one’s career, and the culmination of years of work. To alleviate this loss, Professor Benjamin Cook of the Art Academy of Cincinnati created the Instagram account @socialdistancegallery. Boasting over eighteen thousand followers, the Social Distance Gallery has hosted hundreds of BFA and MFA thesis exhibitions from institutions around the globe during the pandemic.