CULTURE

Art Selfies Now Have a Permanent Home at Los Angeles’ Museum of Selfies

Just when you thought the selfie trend had peaked.


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Just when you thought selfies and museums couldn’t be possibly more intertwined, a new institution combining both is opening. Meet the Museum of Selfies, which will prove that the art of selfies extends beyond the Museum of Ice Cream and Yayoi Kusama exhibits. In fact, it dates back 40,000 years, according to the museum. (Additionally, the museum will also debunk Paris Hilton’s claim that she and Britney Spears invented the selfie in 2006.)

Because they couldn’t possibly call themselves the Museum of Selfies without offering the tools to create one, the Los Angeles-based pop-up, which runs from April 1 to May 31, will also provide backdrops for those who’ve come in search of a photoshoot. “To fully understand the origin of the selfie, the museum offers an educational yet playful approach to providing a lens on human history and art through immersive and interactive installations, while poking a little a fun at itself and human nature,” reads a statement from the museum to W. “From cavemen drawings to a ‘Narcissist’ installation to a vertigo-inducing rooftop selfie illusion, the museum touches on a variety of points in human history that examines the intention of the selfie and what it means to the artist and its viewers. And don’t worry, there will be plenty of highly-visual, selfie-taking opportunities throughout the exhibit.”

The Museum of Selfies, which takes about 60 to 90 minutes to go through for a $25 ticket fee, comes on the heels of the world’s first exhibit on the history of the selfie, which opened place at London’s Saatchi Gallery last year. As Nigel Hurst, the chief executive of the Saatchi told W, however, not all art selfies are selfie art. “Selfies aren’t like self-portraiture in the way that a Rembrandt self-portrait is,” he explained. “He seems to be trying to get to the bottom of what makes him a human being, how he shares his common humanity and what is unique about his character that is evident from his face and demeanor. Most selfies are constructs; more to do with how we want the world to see ourselves, and also our lifestyle, our environment, our social world than how we really are.”

The Most Instagram-able Art of 2017

Kusama’s retrospective kicked off its years-long world tour in Washington, D.C., meaning that the Hirshhorn Museum was the first institution visitors were allowed to cover in a seemingly endless supply of colorful dots, proving that the artist’s infinity rooms—which, only a few months later, now have a strict 30-second selfie time limit—are hardly the show’s only Instagram-friendly option.

Courtesy of @alana.holt

This fall, the Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte took his last stab at impersonating Eminem, the rapper he bears an uncanny likeness to when he bleaches his hair, at London’s Josh Lilley Gallery. This time around, there was both a larger-than-life Adidas sneaker as well as videos of Da Corte-as-Eminem smoking from homemade bongs with unsettling laughter and covering himself in mustard.

Courtesy of Josh Lilley Gallery

Normally animals would not qualify as art, but the litter of miniature pigs that Bjarne Melgaard got together for a single night at Gavin Brown’s downtown gallery to model his line of jewelry undeniably drew a crowd. (Along with, of course, some mutterings about animal cruelty.)

Courtesy of @bjarnebjorg

There’s the massive convention center of art that constitutes Art Basel Miami Beach, and then there’s stray art scattered throughout the city, like Suzy Kellems Dominik’s I Can Feel, a 12-foot installation and light show in the lobby of the Nautilus Hotel illustrating an endless loop of 27.68-second orgasms.

Courtesy of @happyhyggebyalicia

Along with the artist Awol Erizku’s photo of Beyoncé announcing her pregnancy came the Beyhive’s strongest showing of fan art ever as each fan clamored to show their creativity, with art historical references ranging from Michelangelo to Botticelli.

Courtesy of @ivormerlyknownas

The Israeli security barrier in Bethlehem, in the West Bank doesn’t sound like the ideal place for a vacation, but more visitors are flocking than ever now that Banksy has set up his very own hotel, where a monkey bellhop announces that the establishment doubles as an art installation before you even step inside the door.

Courtesy of @dr.rana.halaseh

Along with the #burnerbaes like Paris Hilton who make the yearly pilgrimage to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for Burning Man is also a fleet of eccentric art cars, or so-called “mutant vehicles” used to wander and party around the bacchanal.

Courtesy of @blackballoon_fr

Though certainly a less obvious spectacle than a giant sphinx made of 40 tons of sugar, Kara Walker’s latest, an exhibition that’s essentially a tapestry of America’s unavoidably racial and often painful history, which the critic Jerry Saltz lauded as “the best art made about this country in this century.”

Courtesy of @blackoutny1

Just in time for the collectors, dealers, and artists arriving to the Venice Biennale, the sculptor Lorenzo Quinn made his mark on the city by adding a pair of enormous hands emerging from one of its canals as a reminder of the threat Venice faces from global warming.

Courtesy of @neumarc

This summer, MoMA PS1’s courtyard all the way out in Long Island City, Queens, became quite literally the coolest party destination when Jenny Sabin installed a mist-spraying canopy that lit up in rave-like colors at night.

Courtesy of @MoMAPS1

Before he unveiled his, well, eye-catching collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Jeff Koons created a more public spectacle by plopping down a 45-foot-tall ballerina in the middle of Rockefeller Center, his third installation there to date.

Courtesy of @prudenciocenter
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