The Hole is pleased to present Art mystery, Philip Gerald’s New York solo debut. The title nods to his approach of spoofing canonical art history, but also gestures more simply toward art as a mystery. “That’s how I think art works best—especially humor in art,” says Gerald. “If you have to explain the joke, it’s probably not funny.”

Fortunately, Gerald is funny. His compositions are irreverent, farcical, and satirical—painted in a fluorescent palette that bursts with both joy and absurdity, to be taken seriously and not seriously. With titles like Boner shack, The piss, and Painting Cronus with my ass, the Dublin-based painter channels a distinctly Irish wit, relishing vulgarity and faux pas. “From reading Joyce, Beckett, and Flann O’Brien, there’s a thread of irreverence that runs through Irish society. I’m sure there’s post-colonial psychology in there, but that’s another thing altogether.”

“Bootleg” paintings form the backbone of the show, originating from Gerald’s response to Douglas Gordon’s Bootleg empire. These have since become a signature: mischievous riffs on hits from museum trips—Picasso Bootlegs, Matisse Bootlegs, Goya Bootlegs. In Art mystery, mythological references appear more prominently, with Gerald diving into Homer, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Hesiod—“all the lads”—as well as Irish mythology. These highbrow touchstones are filtered through comic irreverence: in Laocoön and his sons, the figures are rendered in graphite with wobbly emoji faces; in Birth of Aphrodite, the goddess wears sports socks.

The images begin as quick iPad sketches, but turning them into paintings—while preserving that digital immediacy—is painstaking. “There’s something funny about these disposable digital drawings taking so long to make as paintings. It started as a joke; I’ve kept going for years.” In person, the artist’s hand comes through: precise tape lines, delicate texture shifts, and matte neon colors capture a kind of screen-like glow.

In the rear gallery, an installation of works on paper accompanies a new video that provides fictional but “informative” context. Narrated by Gerald’s alter ego, it covers topics including pee (as stream of consciousness or bodily trap), memory’s role in making better art, and the supposed relocation of galleries from cities to caves—citing rising overhead and a cooling market. “It’s bloated and heavy-handed,” Gerald says. “It’s satirical, but also a bit of a mirror.”

We could flaunt our art history degrees here—name the references, chart the juxtapositions, underline the digital-age resonance—but that might ruin the joke. Best to leave the Art mystery for you to solve.

Philip Gerald (b. 1992, Dublin, Ireland) lives and works in Dublin. He studied Fine Art Sculpture and Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design. Gerald has exhibited internationally, with solo shows at Mindy Solomon Gallery (Miami), Over the Influence (Hong Kong), and Tuesday to Friday (Valencia).