Wingin' It by Gavin Shapiro

What kind of emotional impact do we feel while experiencing immersive art in a physical space, and how could we use digital tools to imagine a museum exhibit unconstrained by the limitations of the real world? This project explores how the strengths of both physical and digital art can be combined to present viewers with newfound ideas and confrontations.

I wanted to connect with my audience through a tongue-in-cheek (or should I say, beak?) commentary on the stress of the human experience. A lighthearted take on the fragile and cyclical nature of life, this series aims to share an outlook in which we can notice opportunities to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously. Are we more likely to find happiness by choosing to focus on what we can control, and can we learn to accept what we can‘t change?

My hope is that viewers will find something in these animations that resonates with them, and perhaps even allows them to consider their own struggles from a new perspective as well as empathize with the struggles of others. In the end, we’re all in this together, and we’re all just wingin’ it.

About Gavin Shapiro

Gavin Shapiro is a digital artist whose ultimate goal is to produce work that makes you smile. He focuses primarily on playful conceptual artworks that explore how we can use digital tools to confront our expectations of what’s possible in a traditionally physical art world. He's lived in New York, Osaka and Paris, working on a large variety of projects including tv shows, commercials, outdoor displays, large-format stage visuals, and animations for casino games.

His personal work, released under the name “shapiro500,” has been used as visuals at music festivals and concerts all over the world, and has been shown on digital billboards as part of art exhibitions in New York City and Tokyo. His animations have accumulated hundreds of millions of views across Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Giphy, and have been sold as NFTs on Nifty Gateway and SuperRare since mid-2020.