Smartphone art on show at Saatchi Gallery
SMARTPHONES have the “serious potential” to be artistic tools, says the head of the Saatchi Gallery.
The venue has commissioned 10 young British artists to work with the latest in phone technology to produce photographs for its new exhibition.
Artists including Chris Levine, who hit the headlines when he made a holographic portrait of the Queen in 2004, will take part in the show From Selfie to Self-Expression.
Saatchi Gallery chief executive Nigel Hurst said it would not have been possible to capture the images — which in some cases are blown up in size to one metre high — in such clarity until recently.
“The exhibition is about confronting the serious potential of the smartphone as an artistic tool,” he added. “When cameraphones were introduced the resolution and picture quality was so poor you could use them for not much more than mugshots.
“The whole point really is in this exhibition the artists can move away from selfies and self-portraits to focusing on the world around them.”
Artists used Huawei’s new P10 phone which was made in collaboration with camera company Leica and includes picture-editing software.
The show, which opens at the gallery in Chelsea on March 31, explores the history of self-portraits with work by Tracey Emin, Van Gogh and Rembrandt among those on show.
Thousands of amateurs have also entered a selfie competition being run in tandem with the exhibition, with the 10 best being shown in the gallery. @RobDexES