The Matteses have been living in the virtual world, Second Life, for over a year, exploring its terrain and interacting with its peculiar inhabitants. The result of their “video-game flanerie” is a series of portraits, entitled 13 Most Beautiful Avatars. Not unlike Warhol’s entourage of stars, captured in the “13 Most Beautiful Boys” and “13 Most Beautiful Women” portrait series, the Matteses’ 13 Most Beautiful Avatars captures the most visually dynamic and celebrated “stars” of Second Life.

The portraits reflect Second Life aesthetics, featuring the bright colors, “artificial” light, broad flat areas, 3D shapes, and surreal perspectives that are typical of this virtual world. Overall, the series draws on the technological developments which allow the creation of alternate identities within simulated worlds. Despite the relative newness of using video game-derived source materials, the avatars’ icons recall questions common to earlier eras of portraiture, including the cultural and psychological context of the images, and the relationships between high art and subculture, between contemporary art and “traditional” art forms, and between art and life itself.