It was a match made in hipster heaven, it seems, when the comedian Fred Armisen met the LA artist Vanessa Prager on the set of his IFC television series Portlandia. Armisen recalled the encounter in Interview magazine, when Prager came along with her sister Alex, also an artist, for a photo shoot. “The thing that struck me was that your whole family was together—your mom was there—and you were very supportive of each other. It’s kind of rare to see that, so it gave me a trust and interest,” Armisen said. So much so that the former Saturday Night Live star went out to visit Vanessa at her studio, became an avid fan of her work and last year hosted an exhibition at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica. The creative collaboration continues, with Armisen hosting Prager’s first New York exhibition at The Hole gallery, where 16 new paintings will go on view, some only visible through a peephole. “More people will see this exhibition through Instagram or the gallery website than in person, so how much of these high-texture paintings will get communicated through those tubes?” the young artist perceptively asks in a press release.
