Exhibition Review: “Doris Vila - Speaking Volumes” at Holographic Studios, East Village

Doris Vila (Cuban-American, b. 1950) Speaking Volumes, reflection hologram, 2001. 12 x 16 inches. Image courtesy of Don’t Shut Up 2021

By LIAM OTERO February 6th, 2026

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Rarely can a city rightfully boast to possessing a little bit of every kind of artistic medium. Even rarer for those cities to have institutions that actually cater to those broad and niche forms of expression on a regular, practically on-demand basis. New York is home to Holographic Studios, an institution whose entire mission is motivated by the exhibition and study of holography - a scientifically-rooted, time-based medium of manipulating light to produce illusionistic, three-dimensional images whose appearances transform according to one’s perspective and other spatial conditions. It’s exactly how it sounds - holography, holographic, holograms - all terms that float within the orbit of this still understudied and relatively young medium (physicist Theodore Maiman’s invention of the red ruby laser in 1960 is considered a pivotal moment in the modern origins of holography).

Holographic Studios official logo

All the more timely that, of Holographic Studio’s exhibitions, Doris Vila’s solo show was my introduction to both this institution and the art of holography - I literally happened upon it one afternoon while on my way to both of Karma Gallery’s East Village locations, which are in close proximity. Vila (Cuban-American, b. 1950) is one of the few artists in the world who specializes in holography and has worked with it for close to 50 years. In fact, the timeline of Vila’s career almost matches up with that of Holographic Studios considering she began working in holography sometime in the late-1970s and the institution itself was founded in 1979 by Dr. Laser (aka Jason Sapan), famous for orchestrating the laser light effects at Studio 54 and creating a portrait hologram of Andy Warhol among dozens of other high-profile cultural icons.

Doris Vila (Cuban-American, b. 1950), Vowels (breathing), reflection hologram. 16 x 12 inches

How one positions themselves relative to a hologram is essential to appreciating the full range of an image’s real-time changing features - think of this like how you tilt and turn a ring-bound school planner with its iridescent surface or that of a foil trading card. Applying this approach to Vila’s work, Vowels (breathing) is a reflection hologram showing the bottom half of a face through which you see the mouth enunciating the vowels of A-E-I-O-U as you traverse it - although a noteworthy twist here is that, because of Vila’s Cuban background, the Hispanic enunciation reads a little differently from American English pronunciations.

Doris Vila (Cuban-American, b. 1950), Relics of an Island Hotel, reflection hologram and video projection.

For another remarkable work, Relics of an Island Hotel was a site-specific hologram demonstrative of how holography can vie for an intermedia engagement with its back-placed video projection, thereby casting tonally cool, moving shadows on the walls and floors in its corner niche. The bluish tinges of water and atmosphere betwixt shells and a stone head had a vitality akin to 1960s psychedelic light show projections.

To experience Vila’s art is to discover that you are just as much an agent in the activation of her pieces. Holographic art is a medium that absolutely cannot be fully understood when seen in reproduction - you have to be physically present. Vila’s holography is a meditation on light and time in which one’s interactions with the images contained within can be done in any manner of sequencing, speed, or position: take the rapid-fire reversal of vowel pronunciations, the steady pan of Matrix-esque light droplets suspended in space, or situating yourself within the embers of an illusionistic conflagration.

Doris Vila (Cuban-American, b. 1950), Exactly As We Remembered, 1985, virtual depth (Image behind the film plane): 24". Real Projection (Image in front of the film plane): 3". Image courtesy of HOLO.

In addition to Holographic Studios’s fantastic exhibitions, be sure to keep apprised of their versatile programming schedules which include in-house tours, artist workshops, and a variety of artist-designed for-sale products & artworks, all of which are coordinated under the astute leadership of its youngest director and successor to Dr. Laser, Sy Rivers. WM