Opening reception: 2600 by Shinji Murakami

Pattern (Pizza Boy), 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 60”x78”

The Atari 2600 wasn’t the first home video-game console (that was the Odyssey, which Magnavox released in 1972), but it was the first to truly capture the world’s imagination—the first widely coveted home video-game console. To be a kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s was to be enthralled by Asteroids, Berzerk, Combat, Defender, and all the classics that made up the roster of games for the 2600. The console, with its faux wood-paneled sides, is an icon of the past; a totem that evokes nostalgia even in people who weren’t alive for its first incarnation.

Like a digital Icarus, the 2600 soared to unimaginable heights only to be brought, fatally, down to earth. A combination of low-quality games, market saturation, and the rise of the home PC ended Atari’s reign, ushering in a lull in the world of video-game consoles. A new era began in 1985, when Nintendo’s NES—which had appeared in its home country of Japan two years earlier—debuted around the world. This catalyzed the dominance of home consoles in an uninterrupted evolutionary trail that leads up to today.

But the Atari 2600 lives on in a curious afterlife. Emulators for many of the games can be found online and played on laptops and phones. Hobbyists continue to not only play the classics, but to make new games that use the same technology and aesthetics as the originals. The artist Shinji Murakami is one such person.In this exhibition, Murakami showcases work that is inspired by—and also additive to—the universe of the Atari 2600. Murakami has been focused on making art in this vein since 2021, when he became fascinated by the historical value and minimalist visuals of the 2600. But also of interest to Murakami, upon investigating further, was the robust community that exists around vintage Atari products even now.

One can find, in the lively forums at the AtariAge website and the Atari2600 subreddit, a virtual family of 2600 aficionados and obsessives who modify old games and craft entirely new ones—which is just what Murakami has done here with X, Pizza Boy, Mars Lander, and Emoticons. All were made with the kind advice and support of the online 2600 circle. Bringing today’s technology to bear, Murakami has also made a series of paintings which take advantage of AR codes to direct viewers, via their smartphones, to playable versions of Murakami’s games. It’s an artful synthesis of both so-called “obsolete” and state-of-the-art tech.

Pizza Boy, 2024, Digital image for the original Atari 2600 cartridge

Shinji Murakami

Shinji Murakami’s work springboards from the philosophy “Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology” of Gunpei Yokoi, the inventor of Nintendo’s Game Boy. In this context, withered technology refers to mature technology that is cheap and well understood, and lateral thinking is the finding of radical new ways to use such tech. The pixelated expressions of 8-bit video games are at the root of Murakami's work, serving as the withered part of the evolutionary process he interrogates. In 2021, Murakami began an ongoing focus on the Atari 2600, producing his own original games, which serve as source material for works in wood, alkyd paint, and LED light. These works bring the game into physical space. Using AR technology, his paintings include portals on their surfaces which, via smartphone, open into Murakami's 80s-style original games. Murakami aims to expand the possibilities of expression by transforming the art exhibition into a playground, a constant happening, where the visitor experiences the artwork while becoming part of it. In addition to his practice, since 2016, Murakami has collaborated with partners including Salesforce and The Standard Hotel to create site-specific installations that engage with a broad public. Harnessing universal motifs and context-responsive cultural elements in his characteristic minimalist post-pop hand, he reinterprets the aesthetics and context of each genre, reassessing their role, and his own, within contemporary art.

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