Cory Arcangel, Theresa Duncan, Oliver Payne

Smilers' inaugural exhibition is a celebration of gaming and nascent creativity, featuring three artists who are kindred in their unconventional paths toward artistic recognition. Cory Arcangel (born 1978), Theresa Duncan (1966–2007), and Oliver Payne (born 1977) engaged videogames as a form of expression with radically different outcomes; however, they are united through a mutual arrival to this medium through freeform immersion in music, technology, and various subcultures. As a trio, Payne’s Crust Shmup (2024), Arcangel’s Totally Fucked (2003), and Duncan’s Chop Suey (1995, co-created with Monica Gesue) articulate common ground between the works’ multitalented creators, rather than suggest any stylistic relationships. Graphic and structural differences between videogame genres are instead foregrounded by the works’ positioning in zones of casual, familiar settings. Also linking these artists is the collaborative spirit of their early careers, echoing the connective virtue of gaming and its incomparable reach as both an art form and developmental touchstone of the digital age.