A!R: HOLY WATER by Erika Weitz

In partnership with Ace Hotel Artist in Residence, Superchief Gallery and Friends with Benefits is pleased to co-present HOLY WATER by Erika Weitz – now on view until January 31.

— The Exhibition

In HOLY WATER, artist Erika Weitz explores the psychedelic liquid light shows from the 1960s, which are synonymous with the mystical counterculture spirit and acid culture. Water and oil repel each other on the surface but are contained within a greater whole, celebrating novel expressions of their differences to mimic the ebb and flow of the world around us.

During her residency at the ACE Hotel, Weitz spent significant time at the waterfall in Tahquitz Canyon. The desert serves as a constant reminder that water is not only necessary for life in the sweltering August heat but also a sacred cleansing ritual. During this time, Weitz encountered multiple coiled snakes in the canyons. The symbolic representation of the coiled snake, or ouroboros, embodies the continuous life / death / life cycle, highlighting the regeneration that exists all around us and recalling the continual transformation of shedding the old to become anew.”

Erika Weitz is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles. Through her work with a historic photographic process called Wet-Plate Collodion, she has pioneered new techniques to merge analog and digital images into physical forms, creating a new and evolving form of chemical light painting.

This season’s artist residencies in Palm Springs are presented by co-curators Friends With Benefits, or FWB, and Superchief. FWB is a new cultural institution growing the adoption of emerging technology in pursuit of a better internet. Superchief is an international gallery exploring untapped possibilities for the NFT as an artist’s tool. Their curation shines a light on three artists who capture the surreal psychedelia of LA’s desert milieu, and one more to be selected via open call and voted on by the FWB community.

Learn more about Ace Hotel’s Artist in Residence program.