Cincinnati-based artist Doc Galahan has announced a new interactive street art exhibit to be installed on Covington’s Pike Street Art Wall located at 216 W. Pike St.
Galahan’s ‘Beyond the Veil’ experience consists of a triptych of three key characters in a larger narrative art experience which tells the story of an alternate, Victorian-Era Cincinnati known as Queensgate. Utilizing an overprint technique he calls ‘spectraglyphs,’ Galahan presents art that changes under the color of red, green, and blue light.
Galahan first appeared on the Cincinnati art scene in July 2021 with a show presented by ArtsConnect in Springfield Township. The exhibit featured four interactive holographic boxes, 30 Anaglyph 3D prints, and a tent called The Veil Experience designed to show Galahan’s light changing prints. In December 2021, the next iteration of The Veil Experience appeared at the ninth-annual ArtLocal ArtShow held at the Centennial Barn. That Experience consisted of a room that housed four giant spectraglyphic prints, as the light in the entire room slowly changed from red, to green, to blue.
Galahan’s installation at the Pike Street Art Wall (Photo provided)
“For 2022, I really wanted to bring The Veil Experience to the streets, presenting it in an everyday setting outside of a gallery or an art event,” Galahan said. “Thankfully, the Pike Street Art Wall gave me the opportunity to bring this idea to fruition.”.
Not being able to flood the Pike Street Art wall with RGB light posed a unique problem for the artist. His more than 20-year career as a digital designer came into play.
“The answer was simple, employ a web app that utilizes a viewer’s smartphone camera as a lens or ‘Spectraglyph Monocle,’” he said.”Everyone has a smartphone and thanks to QR codes I was able to easily launch a web app to simulate the light play experience. It works surprisingly well.”
By accessing a QR code at the Pike Street Art Wall or by going to monocle.docgalahan.com viewers will be able to view Galahan’s work as intended under the glow of RGB light.
Galahan’s art isn’t simply a visual experience. His versatile body of over 30 prints are steeped in storytelling and world-building. In this story, the gothic fantasy world finds itself in a Civil War between humans and supernatural beings, brought on by the collapse of the veil between known reality and the supernatural. Galahan’s exploration of light and color techniques reveal hidden mysteries.
Galahan’s work on display during a previous exhibit (Photo provided)
“My aim is always to utilize visual language to play off of and enhance storytelling,” said Galahan. “I am constantly exploring the dual nature of reality using light and color to manipulate imagery.”
Galahan’s art depicts fantastical creatures from Steampunk oddities, mythological creatures, and spirits while also staying true to a Victorian aesthetic utilizing a combination of 19th-century wood engravings gleaned from illustrated newspapers, floral elements, and his own illustration.
Next year, Galahan will be releasing Doc Galahan’s Queensgate, which he describes as a ‘gaslamp serial experience.’ The beginning of Queensgate’s saga will find itself once again on the streets of Covington and Cincinnati in the form of interactive street art through holographic boxes as well as through a 12-episode fiction podcast and 12 issues of what Galahan calls a ‘modern penny dreadful,’ 10-20 page mini-art novels.
Spearheaded by architect and Covington resident Chris Meyer, the Pike Street Art Wall project launched in 2015 and displays art from local and regional artists.
Pike Street Art Wall
This sounds really cool- I love interactive art!