Nic*Rad hardly fits the brooding artist bill one might expect after seeing his paintings, which—though very colorful—tend to appear somewhat dark, twisted and at times even mauled. Rad borders on goofy, awkwardly extending his hand and flashing a big friendly grin upon introduction on his opening night at Rare Gallery in Chelsea’s famed art district. Behind him, the white walls are filled with his project “PeopleMatter” (on display through May 8): 99 paintings of various Internet and culturally present personalities—everyone from the Pope to blogger Perez Hilton—arranged in a Mondrian-esque pattern that seems to swirl around an iPad positioned on a shelf. (Serendipitously, the show opening fell on the day the device was released, which Rad acknowledged in a Facebook message to event-goers, kindly thanking Steve Jobs for his cooperation.) The paintings are beautiful, which makes it all the more impressive that Rad is giving them away for free at the end of April, accepting reservations all month via e-mail. Why? It’s all part of the art. Asked a few questions via e-mail (what member of the Internet generation doesn’t love that?), he graciously answered—assumingly between grins.

GOTHAM: What was the initial inspiration for this project? Was there an a-ha moment?
NIC*RAD: I worked on the project for 18 months—there were bouts of inspiration mixed with a lot of doubt and frustration. Illusions of grandeur and thoughts of career suicide were always present depending on the weather or quality of coffee I had that day. It felt right because I was mad for the work. It’s the only thing I wanted to do.

Why did you choose the subjects you chose?
The first six months of the project were spent chasing around and building RSS feeds, Twitter streams and Tumblrs. Many of my subject choices were like breadcrumbs in a labyrinth. Some of them were famous. Some of them were neighbors. Some of them were Internet crushes. On any particular day I would fall briefly in love with someone else’s digital persona; the way they pushed themselves through their bytes into little chunks of matter. I tried very hard to convince myself I understood everyone. Eventually I started to meet the folks I’d chosen. They were e-mailing back. The portraits were an attempt to empathize with the ghosts I’d been having conversations with. There’s a decent history and tradition of that sort of painting.

What did you hope people would take away from it?
I absolutely want to paint approachable pictures. But I think the reward for meeting with the paintings in person is an unexpected depth and consideration. I’m trying to squeeze the conversation of “painting” thin enough to fit in the browser. Careful to leave enough information to unpack and reconstruct the narrative. There’s not one message. It’s not a didactic project, because I don’t know anything—which is a bit of virtue. I had to get over myself in the face of so much information.

Why are you giving away most of the paintings for free, as opposed to selling them?
Free is a feature of the moment. My subjects all engage in some aspect of “free” whether their content begins that way or not. I am interested in noncapital exchange because it’s the mechanism that creatives will have to live and thrive on for some time. The new collectors will own some piece of this dialogue. I’m glad to know this project will be scattered around New York and to wherever. It’s not hunting for a museum or a single home. This is a very satisfying thought to me.

What do you imagine people saying to one another as they leave the gallery after viewing your work?
Nic*Rad is a towering genius. Now let’s go get something to eat.

The events below are free and occur throughout the show’s run:

April 16: Readings by Stephen Elliott (author of The Adderall Diaries) and Tao Lin (author of Shoplifting From American Apparel) (7 PM–9 PM)

April 29: The Gift Night, where 99 portraits will be given away (6 PM–8 PM)

May 6: Nicole Atkins performs