While the intersection of art and technology may be new for some, artist Rachel Rossin has been a pioneer in the field for nearly her whole life, having taught herself programming at a young age. Her practice includes painting, sculpture and digital art, as well as hybrid combines that incorporate elements of different disciplines. In her latest exhibition, “Boohoo Stamina” at New York’s Magenta Plains, Rossin presents a new body of gestural paintings that explore loss and methods of self-repair.

Pushing the boundaries of traditional and digital art, these recent works seamlessly weave together elements of both the physical and virtual worlds. A clear marrying of the two; some of her paintings include embedded holograms. One such combine, Boo-hoo (brain) (2020), features a close-up of a pink face with bright blue tears pouring out of the eyes. Above the eyes is a hologram of a brain that rotates continuously. While the inclination might be to search for a projector or hidden screen, the holograms are installed in the works themselves.

Rachel Rossin,
“Boo-hoo (brain),” 2020

The figure in Boo-hoo (brain) is one of many avatars from the digital realm depicted in both the painted and holographic elements. The pink figure is joined by others from Rossin’s digital library, including cats and harpies, perhaps avatars of the artist herself. The allusion to sadness in both the tears and the title of Boo-hoo (brain) set the tone for the exhibition.

Addressing the theme of self-repair, Rossin explores the tools we use to heal in both the physical and virtual worlds with images of crutches, braces and the staff of Hermes or Caduceus. In Tall Cat on Mend (2021), the artist has painted a cat that appears to be propped up on crutches. The cat, another avatar or a nod to the proliferation of internet cats, is ethereal with its soft, washy colors. Avatars are useful tools to act as proxies for our physical selves, an idea the artist has investigated previously in her practice. Related to the concept of a sentinel species, like the canary in the coal mine sent to detect danger, avatars and our internet-selves are vehicles through which we grow, heal and even test out different identities.

Rachel Rossin, Set Elements for a Tome To Me and Tall Cat on Mend (installation view), 2021

Next to the cat is another feline figure in Set Elements for a Tome To Me (2021). Whereas the tall cat’s crutches were painted, Rossin has attached an aluminum brace to the surface of this second painting, introducing another tool to patch the figure together. Slightly robotic, the brace hints at VR equipment and prosthetics, again marrying digital and physical methods of repair.

While the works themselves blur the boundaries of digital and physical, the exhibition as a whole takes this even further. From the flickering images and whirling hum of the holograms to the blue light in the den-like bottom floor of the gallery, there is no beginning or end to Rossin’s physical and digital worlds. Instead, she weaves the two together to the point where their defining characteristics no longer exist and the viewer finds themselves surrounded by avatars in a glowing, buzzing, hybrid space.

Rachel Rossin: “Boohoo Stamina”
Magenta Plains
New York, NY
Runs thru May 22