Visit the GAO HANG! online viewing room here

The Hole is proud to announce our first solo exhibition by Texas-based artist Gao Hang (b. 1991, China). He presents a show of new works looking at contemporary life with one foot in the 90s and one in the future.

Gao’s visual language comes from early video gaming where volumes were rudimentary polygons and textures were applied in broad strokes. When designers started programming 3D first-person shooters instead of flat, side scrolling games, the expansion into the third dimension was clunky—and gorgeous. These periods of growing pains where the technology was in an in-between state and designers were sailing fast into uncharted waters provide a lot of visual excitement that, especially in hindsight, is darkly comedic.

While the style is very specific to mid-90s gamer culture, the existential themes in the work are timeless, or at least date from the Pop era where depth was found in shallowness. The artist aligns himself with the Neo-Pop movement, pushing a palette of primary neons and surfaces from blurred airbrush to hard-edge. If oil painting was invented to paint the illusion of living flesh, acrylic is a great way to make it look dead: neon paint has enjoyed a resurgence as well for kids who grew up staring at screens, as it is the easiest way to make a painting look lit-up. The human eye is drawn to backlit or glowing things, and these paintings both entice and repel. I would call them dystopian but I personally find them so fun and upbeat; I guess it depends whether you like the thrill of the ground disappearing beneath you as you accelerate into the unknown future!

This is the first solo show in New York for this Texas-based artist, and thus he also presents himself, as reflected in the show title, GAO HANG! He has exhibited in his home town of Houston, TX as well as London and with us in East Hampton, NY this summer.

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