Val-U-Mart Art Show: Immersive Art & Live Performances | Oakland

Welcome to Val-U-Mart, the first-ever artificial intelligence shopping experience.  Our one-size-fits-all economy doesn’t work for anyone. Why should we “let the market decide” the cost of an item, when two customers might value the same item completely differently?

Val-U-Mart is revolutionizing the shopping experience, with prices made just for you. Take a simple personality test, and you’ll find everything at the right price. Val-U-Mart is a convenience store installation that invites us to explore how money distorts our perception of value.

The installation will feature interactive art, traditional media, and performances and include pieces from a variety of artists. By “shopping” in the store, participants will engage with their relationship to money and how it intertwines with power, self-worth, how we spend our time, and more. Val-U-Mart – where everything has a price!

About The Artists

Co-producers Chris Swimmer, Ad Naka, & Jen Johnson are interdisciplinary conceptual artists and creative producers based in Oakland, California. They produce works on topics at the intersection of personal and political, exploring topics from consent to body image to homelessness and privilege. Their work is often experiential, inviting viewers to cross the threshold from simply observing to physically interacting with these concepts. Committed to producing works that create a platform for local artists, they solicit and feature conceptual art from a variety of collaborators.

Featured artists include Whitney Freedman, Caitlyn Kilgore, Devandra Yeazel, Justine Sun Dela Cruz, Michael Garcia, Michael Kerbow, Laura Sanford, Michelle Cutler, Inga Bard, Gabe Weis, Ana Rivero Rossi, Mo Skye, Madeline Fried, and more.