Belong Gallery presents The Billionaires, a solo exhibition by Aubrey Ingmar from May 26 - June 24, 2023. Through an immersive installation, including ceramics, digital prints, large-scale wall drawings, an iOS augmented reality app, and a coloring book, Ingmar employs satire to shed light on the absurdity of an ultra-wealthy billionaire class.
Throughout history, societies have used mockery as a means of challenging and subverting the powerful, from medieval puppetry to modern-day memes. This exhibition draws upon this long standing tradition, offering a contemporary evolution as a means to reclaim a sense of control, remove power from the powerful and empowerment to the powerless.
In their quest for control, the billionaire will resort to tantrums on social media when faced with setbacks, commandeer media conglomerates to shape narratives, and prioritize space races over leveraging their immense resources to address pressing planetary concerns. By stripping away the aura of invincibility surrounding the super elite, Ingmar's installation serves as a critique of their ability to manipulate culture, information, technology, and even democracy itself.
In a playful nod to political cartoons, Ingmar transforms the billionaire archetype into a child-like and foolish caricature. As visitors traverse the exhibition, they will witness the billionaires' insatiable materialism, their grandiose space race endeavors, and even their metaphorical indulgence in cannibalistic pursuits.
Aubrey Ingmar is an artist/activist based in Chicago, IL. Her work explores motherhood, feminist struggles, and inequality through an anti-capitalist lens, utilizing satire and language to form visual narratives around these subjects.
Her interdisciplinary practice combines augmented reality, virtual sculpture, ceramic dioramas, and hand-built environments made from cardboard and paper, to present the viewer with interactive installations that are conceptually futuristic and politically charged.
Ingmar’s artwork has been exhibited at Art Los Angeles Contemporary with AWHRHWAR, Botschaft & L'oiseau Presente in Berlin, Germany, Galeria Garash in Mexico City, Mexico, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, and Five Car Garage in Santa Monica, CA, and has been written about in Cool Hunting, Shoutout LA, Art & Cake, and Maake Magazine.
As an activist, Aubrey has been an organizing member for Artists for Democracy, af3irm, Socialist Alternative, and Socialist Students UCLA.
She holds a BFA from Northern Illinois University (2010) and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2015).