Detroit-based net art star Molly Soda is a digital artist who has exhibited worldwide, and was last year recognized as one of "The Most Important Artists of 2013" by Complex Magazine, alongside Banksy, Jeff Koons, and Marina Abramovic. Soda and her work have been featured in VICE, Rolling Stone and Forbes. For the past five years, she has explored female representation online through works that extend across multiple social media networks, including Tumblr—where she has over 40,000 followers—and the multimedia publishing platform, NewHive.
Soda moved to Detroit in September of 2013 from Chicago.
While she didn't plan on moving to the city originally, just visiting, she ended up falling in love with the people she met.
"I've never moved to a single city where I felt like I immediately had friends," says Soda.
Of the art scene, she says, "Everyone is super welcoming and awesome and is interested in who you are and non-judgmental. It's a really supportive community...It's less stress-inducing than places like Chicago and New York, where I've lived before…less social climbing."
Also, the lower cost of rent in Detroit gives Soda the ability to be a working artist. Eventually, she says, she'd like to open a gallery in the city.
On Thursday, January 15th at 7 PM, Soda is curating a large-scale exhibition at North End Studios, 5101 Lorraine Street.
The show—called What's Your Wifi-- is focused on artists who are exploring performance through the lens of networked culture. What's Your Wifi will feature net art created on the multimedia publishing platform NewHive by local artists Amber Locke, Sarah Cohen and PRISMVIEWS, as well as national contemporary net artists, including Emilie Gervais, Terrell Davis, Lauren Poor, Tyler Kline, ieatlemonstheniseeagain, Bryce Grates, and Maisie Cousins. The art will both be projected and displayed on desktop computer setups.