Art can’t be defined. Try it. It can’t be done. We all kind of know what it is but no one really knows. No one really knows what happiness is either. The moment you know it, you’re not really happy. When you’re really happy, you’re not thinking about happiness.
– Rafaël Rozendaal

If I was high I might enjoy his work, but unfortunately I am sober and can say with a clear mind that this is complete bullshit.
– Anonymous YouTube comment

Postmasters Gallery is pleased to announce a first solo exhibition in New York of Dutch-Brazilian artist Rafaël Rozendaal. “Everything You See Is In The Past” will present several of his websites as large scale projections and a group of unique lenticular paintings that he began making in 2012.

Born in 1980, Rozendaal uses the Internet as his canvas. Spread out over a vast network of domain names, his work attracts a large online audience of over 40 million visits per year. His practice explores the electronic screen as a pictorial space, reverse engineering reality into condensed bits, to create works that reside somewhere between painting and animation.

Rozendaal’s websites are individual works of art where the domain name serves as the title (e.g., http://www.nothingeverhappens.com/). Though collectors may buy his websites, Rozendaal stipulates in his Art Website Sales Contract that the sites must remain on public view and the owner must renew the domain registration annually. “It’s the virtual equivalent of owning a sculpture in a public park,” he says. “There’s a point of pride of being the one who commissioned or paid for it. And the site still identifies the owner.”

For Rozendaal’s lenticular paintings, algorithm is a new brush. Each unique composition consists of several frames, so the abstract image offers an illusion of depth and appears to animate when the work is viewed from various angles. In October Rozendaal’s lenticular painting “Into Time 13 08 13” was the feature lot of “Paddles On!” a first digital art auction curated by Lindsay Howard at Phillips.

In 2010 Rafaël Rozendaal created BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer), an extremely successful open source DIY curatorial format that has been staged over 100 times around the world. “Everything You See Is In The Past” will be accompanied by a BYOB closing event.

Selected Recent Exhibitions: Centre Pompidou, Venice Biennale, Valencia Biennial, Casa Franca Brasil Rio, TSCA Gallery Tokyo, Seoul Art Square, NIMk Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum project space.
Selected Press: Time Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Flash Art, Dazed & Confused, Interview, Wired, Purple, McSweeney’s, O Globo, Vice, Creators Project, Artreview, Metropolis M, +81, La Repubblica, Vogue.