This is an “official” show of virtual art. So much is at stake, it has already spawned a Salon de Refusés of over thirty virtual artists who didn’t make the final cut.

Inside the gallery are five monitors, each featuring a virtual copy of the real space occupied by a different virtual artwork. These are “THE FINAL FIVE,” created for this context by the nominated and elected best from hundreds of virtual artists who have exhibited in year 1 of Brooklyn is Watching.

It is a diverse bunch, representing very different points of view of what it means to make virtual art. Visitors to this exhibition will have a chance to interact with the works and to vote for the best of the best.

Brooklyn Is Watching is a mixed-reality project by artist Jay van Buren. The stage is based in Second Life. For nearly a year and a half, artists have placed artworks there to be seen by visitors to the Real Life venue Jack the Pelican gallery—and to have their works discussed by international critics, curators and artists (including Tyler Coburn of Rhizome , and Barbara London of MoMA) in a weekly podcast and blog at BrooklynIsWatching.com. The project has been widely discussed and written up in such publications as the New York Times Magazine and the Brooklyn Rail .

Nomination and initial voting was open to the public. The selection from 70 to the Final Five was done by an expert panel that included SL art heavyweights: AM Radio, Amy Freelunch, AngryBeth Shortbread, Bettina Tizzy and Sage Duncan.

The internet these days is second nature to most of us. As technology evolves, chances are that life will become more and more a mixed reality experience, combining natural reality with its digitally augmented ghost. The possibilities being worked out now are likely to have a huge impact on the syntax of the future.

Any number of virtual worlds that have sprung up in recent years. The most popular, with over 700,000 regular visitors, is Second Life. One enters in the form of an avatar, which is a creative representation of the self, and interacts with spaces, objects and others. It mimics many of the social, physical and geological properties of the real world, including three-dimensionality, objecthood, continuous space and contiguous land masses, ocean and sky, gravity and light, and even wind. Participants can build, place and transfer objects. In addition, it boasts a real economy (over $120 million U.S. dollars changed hands here in the first quarter of 2009) and social and political unrest. The reputation of Second Life is nerdy, but its relevance persists.

All these characteristics have made this virtual world a fertile ground for the evolution of a unique culture. Of the artists working in Second Life, many are sophisticated professionals from the real-life art world. Others, oblivious to the issues of contemporary art and art history, have fresh insights. They come together from everywhere around the world to forge in their collective efforts a new and expanding medium that is still so young it has yet to settle into a firm notion of exactly what it is. Of the many, a few have emerged as leaders to set the pace of innovation and discovery. In the opinion of our experts and a jury of their peers, the Final Five are the ones to watch.

PANEL DISCUSSION AND LECTURE Panelists Lori Landay, Stacey Fox and Pavig Lok will discuss the topic of digital and virtual art on August 15th at 6pm. On the following evening at 6pm, noted futurist Jerry Paffendorf will deliver a lecture on the same subject.