NSFW/SVILOVA is proud to present a collaboration consisting of two exchange exhibitions with the New York-based Entrance Gallery.
First out is “StarTrak“, a show with Ilja Karilampi presented in the lower level of Entrance Gallery. In the exhibition Karilampi will present several new works: the video “Norwegian Roadmovie 2“ – a hike on foot from Sweden over the border to Norway, and a printed series of deconstructed “Milady Auras“, created from the leaked assets of a derivative NFT project with the same name.
“Norwegian Roadmovie 2“ (11:45) can be described as a TikTok-format odyssey through present-day troll country. We follow Karilampi together with artist Agassi Bangura as they walk 40 km across the fringes of the mythical Scandinavian landscape.
“Milady Auras“ consists of “auras” that are typically assembled by an algorithm. Here, they have been put together manually from hundreds of PNG files, creating new versions and physical avatars of a digital collection. Karilampi has designed a collection of glow-in-the-dark stickers, made in special 3M vinyl, typically used on oil rigs to show directions in the dark. These motifs overlay the “aura” prints; playing with currency symbols and the heavily tokenized practice of graphic design.
The “auras” can also be seen in Norwegian Roadmovie 2 where they appear in a quick succession of screenshots. Ilja Karilampi’s method of dissolving the image over and over again makes StarTrak a backdoor portal to a physical representation of trait rarity.
// With support from the Consulate General of Sweden in New York //
lja Karilampi (*1983 in Gothenburg) is an artist based in Berlin, educated at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Karilampi works with an ongoing aesthetic development related to musical energy and visual narrative, building a conceptual world of glamorous social realism. Through materials such as colored vinyl, engraved aluminum, videos, and large-scale sculptural gestures, Karilampi attempts to manifest our ever-streaming iconography into one coherent visual ecosystem.
Currently, Karilampi is working on “FolkFigur”, a digital public artwork commissioned by the Public Art Agency, exploring crypto and public data streams as means of generating changes in a new online figure, launching on Ethereum in December 2022.
Previous exhibitions include [ capture ], Hybrida, Värmland, and Sandy Brown, Berlin, 2022; “disco server”, hFACTOR, Lagos, Nigeria, 2021; “Non-space”, Revolver Galería, Lima, “Narcotics”, Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia, 2020; “ARS17”, Kiasma, Helsinki, 2017; “The Chief Architect of Gangsta Rap”, MoMA PS1, New York, 2012, and “based in Berlin”, KW, Berlin, 2011.
ABOUT ENTRANCE
Entrance has operated as a platform for the cutting-edge of New York City’s downtown art scene since 2017, fostering the best in under-recognized and emerging contemporary art, under the supervision of founding director Louis Shannon. The gallery’s space at 48 Ludlow evolved out of the headquarters of the DIY art collective “Luck You” - of which Louis was a founding member in 2008. Entrance now hosts 9 + exhibitions a year between its two gallery spaces and continues to support a myriad of community-driven projects and events, including artist residencies, talks, print and book releases among others.