James Ferraro

James Ferraro

James Ferraro is a man of many talents. If you don’t know him by name, you’ll probably recognise one of his many musical pseudonyms. The man behind aliases Bodyguard, Edward Flex, K2 and Bebetune$, (among about 30 others), and making up one half of The Skaters as well as Lamborghini Crystal, Ferraro has earned something of a godlike reputation in the world of electronic music. He’s been dubbed an “idiosyncratic experimentalist”, is widely regarded as the king of vaporwave and his philosophic outlook has been aligned with Jean Baudrillard. His often-dystopian musical ventures demonstrate a unique exploration of modern life, delving into concerns of technology and consumer society. His 2011 album, “Far Side Virtual”, utilises sounds of modern life – computer bleeps, ringtones and the Skype login sound – and was created on Garageband. News of Ferraro’s venture into visual art came as no great surprise – ever transcending artistic boundaries, his conceptual synthesis of modern existence seemed almost destined for the visual realm. “Extinction Renaissance”, Ferraro’s first show of visual work, takes place at LOYAL gallery in Stockholm, where the artist has been in residence this summer. While it may be his debut solo exhibition, Ferraro is no stranger to the gallery circuit – he live scored “Burning Prius” in collaboration with Maxwell Sterling, showed a series of sound installations at MoMA PS1 and has been previously featured at LOYAL alongside Takeshi Murata and Ben Jones.