Best Friends 

Curator: Looking at this work, "Best Friends" by Alex Gross, I am immediately struck by its blend of realism and the surreal. What are your first thoughts? Editor: It's unsettling, in a good way! Like a snapshot from a slightly off-kilter reality. The colours are so vibrant, yet there’s this weird emptiness, especially with the blurred face. It gives me that uncanny valley feeling, you know? Curator: Absolutely. Considering Gross's body of work, this fits into his style, juxtaposing the everyday with hyperrealism. The use of acrylic paint, typically seen as accessible, allows him to create almost hyper-smooth surfaces. Look at how that 7-Eleven sign looms, nearly as important as the figures. Editor: True. I can't help but imagine these friends have met in front of 7-Eleven. There's something about how mundane this scene is that magnifies its emotional punch. Like, their connection feels intimate but also distant, almost mediated. And the polka dots... they float between us and them. Curator: That’s interesting because you see how this work could speak about consumption culture and also anonymity. It looks so contemporary because that brand logo is part of our landscape. By rendering the friend's face pixelated, is the artist suggesting alienation in our networked society, or protection of their identity? The layering of references is clever, inviting closer inspection. Editor: Perhaps it suggests we're all walking around like blurred copies of ourselves, consuming identical snacks with pixelated expectations? I’m half-kidding! The longer I look at it, though, the more this ordinary street corner pulses with strange energy. And who doesn't have a deep memory or connection to a specific 7-Eleven? They seem to become landmarks. Curator: Right, a commonplace site rendered surreal! The use of "common" things, from the figures' ordinary clothes, to the setting and use of acrylics brings high art and everyday life together. A great reflection of a new sort of shared culture. Editor: In all its strange and accessible ways. I think there's so much to unpack with such everyday yet haunting paintings.