WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25

Gala: White Box
With all the galas we've got going around these days, you've really got to distinguish yourself somehow. The gala at White Box offers not only DJ Spooky and an auction fronted by Phillips de Pury & Company Celebrity Auctioneer CK Swett, but as if that weren't enough they're also Skype-ing in Ai Weiwei. Sounds like a party to us. —Dan Duray
White Box, 329 Broome Street, New York, 6–10 p.m., from $50

Opening: Robert Irwin, "Dotting the i’s & Crossing the t’s: Part 1," at Pace
The title of Robert Irwin's latest exhibition suggests that the great California artist is in a retrospective mood, revisiting work and ideas from throughout his career—which is wonderful since, over the past 60 years, he's charted one of the most remarkable, action-packed journeys of any contemporary artist. This show includes a new installation involving the gallery's windows and a light work. Part two arrives in September. —A.R.
The Pace Gallery, 32 East 57th Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

Lecture: Lorraine O’Grady "Portrait of the Artist" presented by the Performa
The Performa Institute presents the first installment of a new lecture series, called Portrait of the Artist, featuring Lorraine O'Grady. Art historian Kellie Jones will present a look at Ms. O'Grady's work, followed by a conversation with the artist. —Michael H. Miller
NYU Einstein Auditorium, 34 Stuyvesant Street, New York, 6:30 p.m., free with reservation: rsvp@performa-arts.org.

Screening: "Found" at Eyebeam
Short films made by Fred Wilson, Christian Marclay, Rashaad Newsome and Jacob Ciocci comprise the first installment in a screening series curated from the Eyebeam archives by James O’Shea. This screening involves artists who work with found and appropriated images, a practice that is connected to Eyebeam’s philosophy of free and open culture. After the opening, the films will screen daily, beginning April 26, from 12-6 p.m. —Rozalia Jovanovic
Eyebeam, 540 West 21 Street, New York, 8:30 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 26

Opening: David Benjamin Sherry, "Astral Desert" at Salon 94
David Benjamin Sherry went off the grid for a while to travel the National Parks of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and California. For his first solo show in New York, he presents a series of photographs, sand prints and photograms that he made while in the desert, using traditional medium and large format film cameras. This series of vivid portraits of desert sandscapes questions the dominance of digital imagery and honors the American West in wild colors.
Salon 94, 243 Bowery, New York, 6–8 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28

Opening: Sherrie Levine, "A Dazzle of Zebra" at Paula Cooper Gallery
Paula Cooper presents an exhibition of new work by Sherrie Levine. We're not sure what exactly to expect, but Ms. Levine is always enthralling. There's this little bit of info from the gallery as well: "Much like the exhibition’s title, Levine’s installation sets in motion an alliterative principle: the works rhyme with each other and with their counterparts in the 'real world.'" --M.H.M.
Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street, New York, 6–8 p.m.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29

Event: Columbia Visual Arts MFA Thesis Show
The second year Columbia MFA students show off their stuff before they go out into the world to get famous. Should be a blast. —D.D.
38-27 30th Street, Queens, 2-5 p.m.

0-Day at Eyebeam (Courtesy The Observer)

Last night at Eyebeam in Chelsea, Jeremiah Johnson and Don Miller met up to give a lecture on the ethics of stealing art. The two co-founded 0-Day Art, an online gallery that deals in net art, or artwork that uses the Internet as its medium. But unlike other galleries, they don't sell the work. These self-styled Robin Hoods of Internet trade in net art in an effort to keep it free and available to the public, even if that means taking it by illicit means from the artist. Their lecture was the first in a series organized in conjunction with an online-only exhibition called "C.R.E.A.M.," which is accessible during the month of April. As the purpose of "C.R.E.A.M." (an acronym for “cash rules everything around me") is to present work by artists who are engaged in open-source art while exploring the issue of establishing value for Internet-based artwork, 0-Day Art was a perfect fit.

“Is it okay to take digital art 'offline' to give it value,” asked Mr. Johnson rhetorically. “No. It’s not okay. That’s a ridiculous way to monetize net art.”

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Miller were referring to a video that first piqued their interest in exploring the valuation of net-based work. They saw the video “How Do You Sell an Animated GIF,” which showed Rhizome executive director Lauren Cornell talking about selling the quirky computer animations that could be taken “offline” and enjoyed “locally” by collectors. While the conversation about limiting access to digital artwork or imposing restrictions on their display and transfer was not new, it forced people to have an opinion about the issue one way or another, including Mr. Johnson and Mr. Miller.

“We’re resistant to attempts to create value or applying a paradigm that exists for physical objects,” said Mr. Johnson who was seated next to Mr. Miller behind a table and partially hidden by an open laptop. Behind them was a large screen which displayed bright green vintage-like computer graphics. “In treating digital works as a physical work, you’re neutering the power of those works.”

There were about eight people in the audience. A young woman in heels was recording the whole thing with a large VHS camera. Another camera was set up on a tripod as the talk was being streamed online.

“0-Day Art ('zero day' art), is a 'warez' group,'” said Mr. Johnson, explaining that that is a group of people who distribute copyrighted work, mostly software, without fees.

As an introduction, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Miller did a run-through of all the vocabulary we would need to know for this discussion. "'Warez'," he said, "are copyrighted works, mostly software, that is distributed without fees."

A “warez scene” is the competition between warez groups, which bred a lot of creativity and changes in digital artwork; “0-day” is a version of “cracked” software that has been modified to remove unwanted features like copy protection and released on the same day as the original. Then they gave us a “cracktro” an introduction to “cracking.”

The digital art gurus distinguished between the "demoscene" (computer art scene of individuals who produce real-time non-interactive audio-visual computer graphics) and the "net art" scene, which is less technical but more conceptual and artistic than the Demoscene.

Then they showed a video of a young man listening to a hip-hop song and gesticulating a whole series of “gang signs” to the rhythm of the song. This was a video that was part of one of their exhibitions that you could access online. They also passed around a flash drive and encouraged anyone with a computer to download all of the work that 0-Day has ever released.

“This might seem disrespectful,” said Mr. Johnson. "We have ultimate respect for the artists' intentions."

“I can’t reconcile your saying you’re trying to be respectful,” said a young man in the audience later, “when what you’re doing is not respectful.”

“If you’re anyone and you’re putting anything online," said Mr. Johnson in response, "and you expect to control it, you’re delusional. I don’t see how holding a mirror up to someone’s delusions is disrespectful.”

An online audience member asked about their piracy of S[edition], a site which offers limited-edition digital artworks for sale.

“We ripped a high-resolution version of a Damien Hirst video,” said Mr. Johnson.

“But we just sat on it,” added Mr. Miller. They never ended up distributing it. Perhaps they were worried about litigation.

“Are you afraid of being prosecuted by S[edition]?” someone asked.

“That didn’t play into our decision,” Mr. Johnson said. “It didn’t fit with our trajectory of what we had so far. And it just wasn’t very good.”

After the talk, Gallerist brought up Cory Arcangel. Mr. Johnson said while they had not shown Mr. Arcangel's work, it does fit within their aesthetic and was similar enough to what they do. He didn't elaborate on why they didn't show Mr. Arcangel's work but perhaps it wasn't challenging enough for them and anyway, he already operates in a similar fashion to 0-Day Art. “You can get his work on his website. He even gives away the code for Super Mario Clouds.”

We asked if they had been approached by collectors.

“No,” Mr. Johnson said. “That would be funny. I guess if we were approached by one, we’d have to figure out how to troll them really hard.”