Emma Stern’s “Down the Rabbit Hole” at Half Gallery: A Dive into Painted Avatars and Altered Realities

Emma Stern has long been a captivating figure in the art world, with her unique approach to creating a universe that feels both personal and expansive. Stern has consistently crafted a space that is distinctly her own—one where avatars rule and reality is fluid. Whether or not we fully understand or enter this world seems secondary; Stern’s commitment to her vision is unwavering, summed up by her bold proclamation, “Nothing is real.”

Stern’s latest exhibition, Down the Rabbit Hole, now showing at Half Gallery in New York City, delves deeper into this layered universe of painted avatars and AI. The show explores themes of identity, escapism, and transformation, drawing viewers into a space where conventional boundaries are blurred, and the self is something to be reimagined or even discarded in the pursuit of something truer. It’s a world where avatars embody the complexities of the human experience, offering an altered lens through which to view ourselves.

The press release for Down the Rabbit Hole reads more like a narrative, setting the stage with a story that begins:

“Bonnie The Bunny needed to relax. She had time to kill, and she knew this intuitively. There were no clocks inside The Rabbit Hole.”

From there, the tale unfolds, blending Stern’s whimsical yet introspective style with philosophical musings on time and existence. Drawing parallels with the disorienting experience of casinos, where clocks are absent and time feels elastic, the narrative weaves in ideas from Dr. Bill Bucksworth’s You’re a Loser! Acceptance, Understanding, and Recovery for Gambling Addicts, which notes that casinos “create a suspension of time, facilitating an ideal space for pleasure and reckless abandon.” Walter Benjamin’s reflection that gambling “converts time into a narcotic” further enriches the allegory, suggesting that within Stern’s rabbit hole, time itself becomes malleable, a distant, nodding presence.

Stern’s work has always played at the edges of reality, inviting viewers into a world where the familiar is constantly shifting. In Down the Rabbit Hole, this theme is amplified; it’s not just about stepping into another world but about the act of letting go—of time, of self, of expectations. The exhibition asks us to consider what it means to lose oneself in the pursuit of authenticity, to embrace the avatar as a means of exploring deeper truths about who we are or could be.

Ultimately, Stern’s latest show is a continuation of her ongoing exploration of multidimensional realities and the fluidity of identity. It’s a journey into a space that feels both disorienting and strangely liberating, where the rules are as malleable as the avatars that inhabit it. As we navigate this rabbit hole, we are reminded that in Stern’s world, nothing is fixed—least of all reality itself