On August 18, I had the pleasure of flying down to Sao Paulo to participate in Brazil’s first show of digital art.  Located at the notoriously conservative University MackKenzie, Mostra 3m de Arte Digital was a sleek, slam-bang-pow introduction to new media art.  Think Photoshop masterworks projected across walls.  Think holographic greeters and 3 foot long ipad screens and interactive stop-motion lightbox video toys.

Curated by Brazilian art power-brokers Zupi Magazine and produced by Elo3, Mostra 3m included artists from around the world.  In addition to my gringo-self, New York expat Dan Goldman presented his all-digital illustrations (done on a Wacom Cintiq- the neato device where you draw directly onto the screen).  Other artists included the impossibly slick Nelson Balaban, Raul Teodoro, Nitroglicerina, collage-maestro Eduardo Receife and Dimitre Lima.

The work was varied stuff from still illustration to animation and video art, and with approaches ranging from the sleek to the textural, and was presented on giant screens that took up two floors of Mackenzie.  One piece I particularly enjoyed was a tower of four organically bordered screens with abstract, shimmering works projected on them.  I could imagine this being used to display webcomics at life size.  Maybe Dan Goldman’s Red Light Properties would be up for the task?

Besides the tech-dork-utopia that was the digital art display, attendees came home with iphone skins designed by participating artists and a thick catalog that would make any paper fetishist weak.

Mostra 3M de Arte Digital runs from August 18 to October 2nd at the University Mackenzie, Rua Itambe 45, Predio 01, Higienopolis, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Words and photos by Molly Crabapple