Nothing compares to visiting an art exhibition in person. Is it still true in 2022? Some may say that nothing beats the interactivity and convenience of a virtual tour. Offering virtual reality tour of physical exhibitions or exhibiting in the Metaverse give galleries and museums undeniable benefits. They can reach a broader audience, accommodating visitors despite time or location for giving them education and entertainment. And for visitors as well benefits are not only the ones just mentioned.

A new study by MacKenzie Trupp and Matthew Pelowski from the Arts and Research on Transformation of Individuals and Society research group of Vienna University showed that even very brief art viewings online can have significant positive effects on visitors, like the lower negative mood, anxiety and loneliness, as well as a higher subjective well-being. These results were comparable to other interventions such as nature experiences and visits to physical art galleries.

Here are three exhibitions in London, Paris and Decentraland you can visit wherever you are this summer.

Autograph London presents a new exhibition contemplating the complex experiences of Afrodiasporic lives, relationships to the land and colonial pasts. Angolan-Portuguese artist Monica De Miranda‘s research-led practice is grounded in postcolonial politics in relation to Africa and its diaspora. Her most recent project The Island contemplates the facts around Europe’s colonial past. Fusing fact and fiction, The Island explores a long trajectory of black presences in Portugal by bringing together intertwined narratives drawing on African liberation movements, migratory experiences and identity formations through a black feminist lens. Using film and photography, De Miranda deploys the metaphor of the island as a utopian place of isolation, refuge and escape: a space for collective imaginings that speak to new and old freedoms. Anchored in cultural affinities and ecofeminism, the artist considers soil as an organic repository of time and memory, where ancestral and ecological trauma linked to colonial excavations continue to unfold.

The exhibition dedicated to Mario Ceroli at Tornabuoni Art in Paris explores two central themes in the artist’s work: nature and Greco-Roman antiquity. Profiles of ancient warriors’ heads gilded with gold leaf, created after the discovery of the monumental Riace bronzes in 1972 in the sea off the coast of Calabria, stand next to a bronze sculpture of the famous fresco of the Paestum diver or large formats inspired by the geometric drawings by Paolo Uccello. This extremely radical intellectual and artistic adventure was opposed to the formalist proposals of the great American currents from that time, such as Pop Art and Optical Art. Rejecting the mannerisms of a society devoted to consumption, Arte Povera favored creative gesture and material over the object. Often looking back to antiquity, Mario Ceroli interpreted this choice by representing nature. The titles of the works (in English) The colours of the sun, The tree of life, Air Water Earth Fire are an invitation to travel and an ode to the Mediterranean. For this exhibition, Tornabuoni Art brings together a selection of these works, at a time when the fragility of the natural elements represented is at the heart of our democratic debate.

Are you into digital media and the future of art in the Metaverse? Keep an eye on MoCDA’s exhibitions. MoCDA Digital Summer Show 2022 is a group show featuring 30 works by emerging artists organized in collaboration with international art schools and universities and Decentraland University. The exhibition at MoCDA Building in Decentraland celebrates the diversity and energy of young talents from all over the world while promoting new perspectives on digital creativity. The exhibition is a starting point for thinking about taking advantage of working in the Metaverse, in a dematerialized and decentralized environment and celebrating diversity: diversity of teaching, learning and of practicing art. The final selection of artworks reflects the many approaches to the process of creating digital art while offering an insight into a new generation of artists, featuring hand-drawn illustrations, 3D VR models, paintings and digital illustrations.

Valentina Riccò

Info:

Mònica De Miranda: The Island
Exhibition at Autograph, London
24 June – 22 October 2022
Curated by Renée Mussai and Mark Sealy
VR visit on GalleriesNow

Mario Ceroli
Exhibition at Tornabuoni Art Paris
10 June – 30 September 2022
VR visit on galleriesnow

MoCDA Digital Summer Show 2022
9 July – 25 September 2022
MoCDA Building in Decentraland
Curated by MoCDA
Image and design Bruno Pitzalis
Visit the exhibition here