Post War & Contemporary Art 
10 November 2021
Post War & Contemporary Art 
148

Cory Arcangel b.1978

Super Mario Clouds

2003-04
screenprint in colors 20 h × 22¾ w in (51 × 58 cm)
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $4,000
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This work is from the open edition published by Kayrock, Brooklyn.
provenance: The Artist | Dan Nadel, New York | Paul Bright, Brooklyn | Private Collection
literature: Cory Arcangel: Beige, Gygax and Munder, pg. 27

This work will ship from Wright in Chicago, Illinois.

print

Super Mario Clouds

Arcangel at LISTE Art Fair, Basel in 2004 seated in front of two works from this edition.

For his 2002 work Super Mario Clouds, artist Cory Arcangel modified the video game cartridge Super Mario Bros. by removing all assets (mushrooms, grass, and Mario) except the sky and clouds. The resulting video is quietly serene, where pixelated clouds scroll slowly over a blue sky. More interested in the technical production of the piece and his internal coding, Arcangel did not display the work publicly until 2003 where it previewed as a multi-channel video installation at Team Gallery in New York. Around the same time, the artist produced an edition of screenprints featuring a still of the film, puffy clouds over a blue sky. Super Mario Clouds would go on to be one of Arcangel’s best-known works.

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