The Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery is pleased to present Web of Love, a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Samantha Nye, on view from January 29 through March 13. The exhibition will open with a public reception on Thursday, January 29, from 4:30–7:30 PM, including an artist talk from 6:00–7:00 PM.
The exhibition is preceded by a special public program on Wednesday, January 28, featuring an artist talk and film screening with Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., and Beth Stephens, both Guggenheim Fellows and longtime collaborators. The evening will center on their documentary Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency and will also include an exclusive preview of Web of Love, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience the film, conversation, and exhibition context together.
Samantha Nye is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans video, installation, sculpture, and performance, exploring intimacy, desire, vulnerability, and systems of care. She has received significant national recognition, including awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Creative Capital, which acknowledge the originality and cultural significance of her practice.
Web of Love is an immersive video installation centered on a near shot-by-shot remake of the 1966 Scopitone film of the same title. Scopitone films—precursors to contemporary music videos—were initially viewed in 1960s and 1970s nightclubs on machines that combined jukeboxes and television screens. Nye’s adaptation stars Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, features music by Erin Markey, and was filmed on location in San Luis Obispo at the Madonna Inn, Sycamore Springs Spa, and in a custom-built, faux-heart-shaped hot tub suite inspired by 1970s romance resorts.
Carpeted wall-to-wall in lipstick-red shag, the exhibition centers on an interactive sculptural lounge embedded with four pink, heart-shaped hot tubs sourced from the iconic (and now defunct) Poconos Palace Honeymoon Resort. The installation invites visitors to recline within the space and experience the four-channel video work alongside a series of video sculptures, collapsing distinctions between viewing, lounging, and participation.
Together, the exhibition and related public programs foreground themes of queer intimacy, nostalgia, pleasure, and care, situating Web of Love within broader conversations about embodiment, relationality, and contemporary media culture.