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Fordham University Galleries Online is proud to present Instant Camera, a portfolio of twenty-five pixel artworks by Pennsylvania-based artist Gabriel Blankenship.

Artist statement: Around 2009, I unexpectedly found myself back at home in rural Pennsylvania. I had been studying photography and had grown accustomed to bringing my camera everywhere. I found myself shooting less at home, despite carrying a camera, and sometimes I didn’t bring my camera out at all. Allowing myself to be more present was liberating, but not without tension. I kept finding myself wishing I had taken my camera with me, or I would catch myself composing a shot, with nothing to record it with.

As I began exploring pixel art, I found the same ideas I was drawn to as a photographer cropping up in my work. Moments I thought I had missed were “developing” in 8 and 16 bits. These “Polaroids” are recalled and imagined landscapes, and photographs that I wish I had taken: details noticed in my peripheral vision, from the passenger seat of a car, or a third-story window. While the aesthetics of pixel art are firmly rooted in the low-resolution graphics of video games and computer software of the late 20th century, the mechanics are ancient. Using similar principles to mosaic tilework, textile weaving, and embroidery, each pixel is individually placed, economically expressing form, color, and value.

Gabriel Blankenship is a multi-disciplinary artist, specializing in photography, installations, and digital works. He studied photography at Fordham University from 2006 to 2009 and started making pixel art as The Pixelsmyth around 2010 on a shared family computer running Windows XP. Drawing inspiration from early personal computer user interface design, and desktop publishing software, Gabriel is interested in exploring ways to bring pixel art off the screen, and into physical space. He works both individually and together with Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based collaborative fourhead.

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Image caption: Gabriel Blankenship, Sneakers, 2017–2019
Instagram: thepixelsmyth

For further information on the exhibition please contact: Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock

The Fordham University Galleries are currently closed in response to COVID-19. In the meantime, please visit our gallery website frequently, as our exhibitions are still underway.

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