Mark Flood: “Buddy Can You Spare a Meme”

Houston-based artist Mark Flood thumbs his nose at the art world itself in this exhibition based on what is perhaps the most universal cultural currency we have these days: memes. We may have lost religion as a unifying force, but at least you can send the same Punch the Monkey meme to your mom, your best friend, and your co-worker and they’ll all probably get it. By using the medium’s nihilistic humor and asking viewers to engage in-person with what they passively consume on their phones every day, Flood is either making a legendary joke out of all of us, or changing the art world’s gatekeeping elitism from within in a sort of benevolent psy-op. Lending a soundtrack to the absurdity is sound artist Victoria Shen (aka Evicshen), who will perform on April 18, in partnership with Fusebox Festival. – Lina Fisher