Sonny Moore

Education
Current Student at Pratt Institute 2023- 2026

Group Exhibitions
2024
Hallow’s Eve, Kino Der Toten, Brooklyn, NY

2025
ANIMATTER, Naruki Art Dojo, Brooklyn, NY
OOPS! Unfortunately... , A Space, Brooklyn, NY
There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see, EKODA, Brooklyn, NY
Nostalgia Baiting, notthatdeep, Brooklyn, NY

2026
Exquisite Corpse, notthatdeep, Brooklyn NY
A multisensory gallery show, 3rd Space, Brooklyn NY

Gleb: 1. It’s always interesting to see how the relationship develops between an artist and the institution where they study. How do your teachers respond to your use of images from otaku culture — images that are so charged with pleasure?

Sonny: The reception of my work from professors tends to vary based on the amount of context they have about my subjects. A lot of my older professors don't have experience growing up online or the context for the images I paint, so they can't critique my subject matter without me overexplaining. I do my best to connect despite that, and over the course of the semester, I'm better understood. As for those who do understand my subjects, most of the pushback I receive comes from those who are under the impression that I'm making this work to gratify my own desires rather than to explore why they might exist in the first place. Through the process of painting images derived from pleasure, I gain a better understanding of my own relationship with consumption and how media affects my worldview. Art is a personal journey as well as a public display, so I can't explain my motives to everyone, which in many ways is what makes it
exciting. It's something I'm actively working on not internalizing. Aside from that, my experience has been overall positive and constructive. As the work has grown in depth and complexity, the reception has improved, even if context is missing for some.

Gleb: In your statement, you use the phrase "digital escapism." Could you expand on that? Is it something unsettling / anxiety-driven?

Sonny: Digital escapism in the context of my practice is an act of mental withdrawal in a physical setting as a result of a secondary, more pleasurable, digital life. Retreating to a place that doesn't require you to be accepted for you to feel at home. It's not a continuous shift, instead a state that becomes instinctive when the world around you becomes too cruel. A new subconscious acceptance of accelerationism. It is absolutely unsettling, but as time goes on, I think the term will become a benign, more widely accepted state of being. No matter how disconnected you may be, we are all being withdrawn by the immovable force that is the internet.

Gleb: What do the anime images in your work mean to you? Are they self-portraits? Is it you in the past?

Sonny: The anime images in my work reflect human desire and artificial connection, forming a singular, homogenized piece of iconography, all created under the same set of rules to capture a specific audience. They are the modern mascot of digital escapism, the girl who accepts you with open arms because that is what she is designed to do.

I definitely see a younger version of myself in these images because my love for anime imagery and fandom culture all but kick started my passion for making. I couldn't get enough of the art being plastered on the covers of my favorite nightcore songs, which eventually led me to spend hours and hours online discussing why I was the only person who could truly understand Sayaka from Madoka Magica. So in the same breath of my critique, I owe a lot to my own tendency to dissociate. My imagery comes from my own inability to truly connect and a need to honor what I once loved.