Generative art has also exploded in popularity NFTs– and is gaining increasing attention as AI becomes an increasingly powerful and accessible tool for artists. But generative art as a concept predates NFTs and the recent resurgence of interest in AI.
A new exhibition in London, GEN/GEN: Generative Generations, running at Mayfair’s Gazelli Art House until October 7, aims to spotlight the history of generative art – and the rising stars of the NFT scene more broadly historical context.
“For us it is an important show,” said Gazelli Art House founder Mila Askarova Declutter‘S SCENE. “It touches on the historical undertones and the ability to connect what happened in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s with the themes being explored by today’s contemporary artists – and being able to highlight the similarities between these two different generations of artists.”
Beyond that, she added, it is interesting for the gallery to “explore at a curatorial level how we as a gallery can navigate the space.”
GEN/GEN: generative generations. Image: Gazelli Arthouse
“A Shared Vocabulary”
The exhibition focuses on the work of generative art pioneer Harold Cohen, and in particular his series “In AARON’s Garden,” created with Cohen’s AARON computer drawing program. In addition to Cohen’s colleagues Ernest Edmonds, William Latham and Stephen Willats, the exhibition also features work by contemporary generative artists whose work reflects on Cohen’s art: Tyler Hobbs, Sougwen Chung, Rhea Myers and Ben Kovach, among others.
These contemporary artists, Askarova said, “take the same plotting techniques, or some of the visual features of the works of previous generative artists, and reimagine them in their own style.”
GEN/GEN: generative generations. Image: Gazelli Arthouse
“The point of the show was really to showcase a shared vocabulary that started much earlier,” says Robert Norton, founder and CEO of the gallery’s technology partner, Verisart. He pointed out that works by the generative art pioneers are rarely seen alongside those of their successors.
“The exciting thing about this show,” Norton added, “is that you have some historical elements alongside some of the more contemporary interpretations.”
That contributed to the way the gallery chose to exhibit the works. Instead of a chronological timeline, the works of art are displayed in such a way that the mutual connections become visible.
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“We didn’t want to group works based on the exhibition; that is, grouping together screen-based works, versus works from the 1960s,” Askarova said. “It was more about creating that kind of connection and demonstrating those similarities on all three floors.”
As you enter, you are greeted with Sougwen Chung’s ‘Study’ series, a painted collaboration between the artist and her DOUG_4 robotic arm, next to one of Harold Cohen’s works, in which computer-generated contours have been painted over by the artist .
GEN/GEN: generative generations. Image: Gazelli Arthouse
On the next floor, Ernest Edmonds’ 1988 pieces “Jasper” and “Fragment,” recordings of computer-generated videos, are played on large CRT monitors. Nearby, his own 2013 work ‘Shaping Form’ follows the movements detected in front of it and responds with blocks of color.
In the basement, an algorithmic self-portrait of Ben Kovach, painstakingly traced by the artist in pen and ink, sits next to Rhea Myers’ “Alphabetics (Infected by PostScript Viruses).” In Myers’ work, the work on display is a PostScript file turned into glitch art by a virus; the artist sells the ability to have a file of your choice processed via the virus.
GEN/GEN: generative generations. Image: Gazelli Arthouse
Digital art and NFTs
The recent boom in generative art has been fueled by the rise of NFTs, with many of the artists in the exhibition, such as Ben Kovach and Tyler Hobbs, exhibiting their work on platforms like Art Blocks.
NOW LIVE | The GEN/GEN collection is now available for purchase and inquiries.
Go to https://t.co/LmpyrjIvSH…
Online sales of the works are made possible through the integration of the @ArtBlocksEngine into the gallery’s online store via the @Verisart Shopify app. pic.twitter.com/bEwUmxHTt3
— Gazelli Art House (@GazelliArtHouse) September 8, 2023
NFTs of several works in the exhibition will also be offered through Gazell.io, the gallery’s online platform. As the NFT market matures, Norton expects physical galleries to open their own digital storefronts.
“Galleries increasingly want to have more control over how these projects are exhibited and sold to their collectors,” he said. “We see this becoming increasingly important as it also allows them to bundle sales of other supporting works, whether physical prints or books, on the same platform. So you don’t suffer from this fragmentation of drops everywhere, which I think characterized the market in 2021.”
GEN/GEN: generative generations. Image: Gazelli Arthouse
Through its partnership with Versiart, Gazelli has been able to streamline the NFT onboarding process for older art collectors, Askarova said.
Previously, she said, “it was extremely time-consuming to give these collectors a wallet, and so forth– something that I don’t think we as a gallery should necessarily spend time on. So now that we’ve put a process in place on the back end to create the ease and speed of onboarding these collectors, once that hurdle is cleared, it’s a lot smoother for us. Because then the conversations are about the work, and not about: ‘How do I buy it?’”
The collapse of NFT prices and the subsequent exit of speculators from the market hasn’t deterred galleries like Gazelli, Norton added.
“What encouraged Mila and Gazelli to focus on doing an AI show was the strength of the top performers working with AI,” Norton said. “We have seen records for some AI artists even surpassing the 2021 stage. “
GEN/GEN: generative generations. Image: Gazelli Arthouse
While the legacy art community was initially “ambivalent” about NFTs, Norton says, generative art is different: “I think there’s a broader consensus that this is something that fits within art history.” And while he views NFTs as a “mechanism of ownership,” he is excited about the potential of new technologies to turn works of art into “living entities.”
“Beeple’s ‘Human One’ is a mutable work of art; there is a living element,” he said. “For artists, the canvas is traditionally a final product; it doesn’t really respond to external conditions. Artists like James Turrell use light and space in the real world; in a sense you are experiencing one of his installations in real time.”
That idea, he said, is being pursued by artists like Matt Kane, whose project “Gazers” uses external data sources. “That changes the paradigm from art as an end product to something that is a living being,” Norton added.