SMALL WORLD!
GAO HANG
IGOR SIMIC
Summer 2026... #4 ROOFTOP
Presented by S M I L E R S in collaboration with Laura (the gallery):
Gao Hang (b. 1991, Baoding, China; lives+works Houston)
Igor Simić (b. 1988, Belgrade, Yugoslavia; lives+works New York+Belgrade)
EXXxxCLUBsively offered by (free) tee time only, this interactive, rooftop exhibition features two HOT BOYZzz—Gao Hang+Igor Simić—who welcome greedy Americans to feast upon their alien take on our greenest pasture: GOLF! ⛳
Gao Hang, in his retro-effervescent style, which physically manifests the low poly graphics of nineties and early aughts videogames①⎚/, creates a freshly minted group of sculptures staged as obstacles on a miniature golf course set by Igor Simić, another artist working between the realms of virtual///and///reality. Simić does so with an inverse relationship to Hang, as he designs darkly humorous videogames that blend poignant societal critique with lighthearted (and higher-res) animation (he also creates haunted IRL neon sculptures). Hang’s neon-colored renderings of contemporary iconography are totally cute, although they are similarly coded with an astute understanding of the lived effects of global connectivity and rapid, internet-fed consumerism on the human psyche, global economy, and environment.
Both Hang and Simić point to a losslessly compressed, post-capitalist future (or apocalypse) as young international artists taking on the American art market. Coinciding with this exhibition, Simić and his game design operation, Demagog Studio, are releasing an expansion that will feature 🆕 territory for the videogame Golf Club: Wasteland, 2018/2021, and approached S M I L E R S with the brilliant idea to take up putt-putt: an exoticist-kitsch tradition (with a history on Manhattan rooftops②⎚/) that is, ironically, somewhat foreign to both artists... what FUN❗ to pair the occasion with another rising talent—Hang—who brings worldbuilding to the neXT>>>>level by inserting his neo-pop pixelations to interrupt Simić’s smooth, variably pitched 9-hole map. DIGITAL×ACTUAL is the word, so listen up, old boyzZZ club:
⚔️
Living their own Legends (of Zelda), Millennials do not play games—they beat them. Economically savvy as a generation by way of navigating fad after fad (pre- and post-scourge of social media), they are now ripe to responsibly consume. As the last vestige of an analog past, voicing the impact of digital ubiquity is a birthright that cannot be silenced by gatekeeping Ganondorfs. Funny enough, Laura of S M I L E R S and Laura Burton of (the gallery) went to public (not art) school together—it’s a small world after all!!!!!!!!!!!
①⎚/ “Fifth generation” home gaming consoles, dating from approximately 1993–2006, such as the best-selling Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 (with 32- and 64-bit CPUs, respectively), are noteworthy for technological advancement in 3D graphics.
②⎚/
Fred Astaire and Hortense Lowits play miniature golf on a course atop the Hotel White at Lexington Avenue and 37th Street, c. 1929–30. Mini-golf was common on New York City rooftops in the nineteen-twenties and thirties; the pastime’s broader popularity in America fluctuated in correlation with volatile, Depression-era conditions.
(Photo: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images).
Laura Tighe
January 1, 2026
Course design team: Matija Pogorilić+Ðorðe Bulajić (bump; New York)
Fabrication: Hallie Doane (tempra studio; Brooklyn)
CLICK HERE to make advanced tee time reservations.