TikTok gets tangible: artist Devon Rodriguez opens his first exhibition, in New York

Digital art enters the real world in the first exhibition from South Bronx-based artist Devon Rodriguez. ‘Underground’ translates Rodriguez’s fascination with figurative art into works which play with our perceptions, in an intertwining of traditional form and contemporary references. 

Included here is 'Subway Series’, his hyper-realist paintings of passengers on the New York subway. ‘Coming from an impoverished background in the South Bronx, the subway has always been an accessible space to me,’ says Rodriguez. ‘When I started this series, all I had was a free Metro card from high school and some paper and a pencil to engage in my artistic practice. I’m fascinated with the idea of accessibility, probably because of the lack of it that I had growing up as a Latino in an inner-city neighbourhood. The accessibility is what drives me when it comes to social media.'

‘Underground’, Devon Rodriguez, New York

‘Graffiti was one of my first introductions to art. It was the art form that was being created around me in the Bronx. The idea that I love most about graffiti is the freedom. These brave artists put their work out there. There’s a parallel that I draw from graffiti to social media. The idea of putting a piece of art out into the world instantly and getting an emotional response thrills me. Many people respond to my work in the digital space, so it’s exciting to finally place my works in a gallery space for people to experience live.’

Rodriguez, who has until now shared his work on social media – the world’s most-followed visual artist, he has 31 million followers on TikTok alone – has now embraced a criss-cross of cultural references. The new exhibition, held at UTA Artist Space’s pop-up gallery in Chelsea, New York, has been produced with creative studio PlayLab, which has created an immersive backdrop for the pieces. It marks the culmination for an artist who was recognised by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery as a worthy finalist in 2019, before turning to social media to showcase his work in the absence of traditional gallery connections.

‘As an artist, I like to think of myself as a documentarian of contemporary people and culture,’ adds Rodriguez of this juxtaposition. ‘Sometimes I use pencil, sometimes I use oil, and sometimes I use video. I think of my short-form video content as part of my artistic practice. It’s another medium. In my latest self-portrait [here], I make a statement about myself in relation to my practice and it’s my most ambitious work to date. I painted myself creating art amongst everyday people. This work embodies a unique mixture of technology, culture, traditionalism, documentation and more. The goal was to create old master-esque works that give consideration to the digital age. In this work, my studio is the subway, and my platform is digital. The excitement comes from when these dynamics all play off of each other.’

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Devon Rodriguez, ‘Underground’ will be on view until 30 September 2023 at UTA Artist Space’s pop-up gallery in Chelsea, New York at High Line Nine, 507 W 27th St