This year’s Istancool Festival opened with an exhibition entitled ‘Being With You’, a series of paintings by Sandro Kopp, painted over Skype, featuring volunteers who sat for the artist. The results are honest, introspective portraits that capture the digital means of creation in a rather subtle way. At first the work seems simply stylized, however beneath is a rather expertly crafted representation of the limitations of the digital form. The paintings have a way of filling in the blanks in a way that pixels demand, while portraying the subjects like a snap shot. In a strange way we’re seeing them in real time.