Free the Pixels (FTP) is a Facebook group created in 2014 by Lloyd Newell and Joelle Duval with over 16,000 members dedicated to sharing pixels with each other. Here’s a quote from the welcome statement: “This is a liberated zone for open source digital art. No copyrights or any restrictions on use are allowed. Anything posted here may be used by anyone to create new open source digital art. “

The Pure Abstract FTP exhibition is a continuation of the efforts of artist and independent curator DC Spensley to foreground the FTP artist community and celebrate this unique and important effort. Art that can be contributed by anyone and remixed by anyone makes this group significant, and represents the highest ideals of art making in my opinion and is one of the reasons this community flourishes and has gone through many phases. Artists come and go all the time and the work posted is always fresh and a source of wonder unencumbered by commerce or academic concerns.

The choice to create a show centered around non-representational abstraction is a starting point, an experiment, a discussion about what abstraction is, and the myriad understandings of what digital abstraction can be. My work, and the work of the admins has been deliberately left out of this show as a demonstration of propriety.

If this show goes well, there will be subsequent shows with different themes, other discussions, and more wonderful, thoughtful, generous FTP artists. Thank you for viewing Pure Abstract FTP, and to the following Artists who are featured in the exhibition: Paul Anslow, Δαυιδ Άτλας, Burnie Elfhonderd, Marco Martinez Farias, Bob Georgeson, Dave Hogg, NlixilN, Mark Klink, Jesús Lastra Martínez, Carmen Racovitza, Miguelangelo Rosario, Jakob Stolte, and audio contributor August Tea Rager. Thanks to Don Hanson and his team for sharing New Art City with our community, Lloyd Newell and Joelle Duval, Admins of FTP for their hard work, and ALL 26 artists who offered their amazing work for consideration!

DC Spensley – May 2021