One of my favorite pieces at the main Basel fair this year was Jorge Pardo’s painting with an iPad mini embedded in it- once you touched it, you had immediate access to directly skype with the artist. A new wave of saying, “the artist is always present.” 

Being the type of viewer that asks questions when I see things out of the blue, I asked the gallery about it and was told I could try.  

So I walked over to the painting, squatted down and pressed Home. It seemed a little rude to just directly call without texting first, so I typed an intro and waited.  Nothing happened. I stepped back a few feet, I looked around to see if anyone noticed if I was touching the art, or wanted to participate with me. The fair was humming along on a busy Friday.  Unlike Marina Abramovich, the artist wasn’t present this time, but will be in the future. Is this the beginning of a new hybrid of traditional painting and internet art? I hope so. 

Jorge Pardo is on view at Petzel Gallery at Art Basel Miami through Sunday.