KVG Virtual Artist Studio visit: meet & greet David Young!
We continue our virtual travel worldwide and are happy to release today the third KVG Virtual Artist Studio Tour! This time, David Young is inviting us to his farm in Bovina, NY, so everyone can discover the beauty behind his work.
David Young is an artist who has spent his entire career at the leading edge of emerging technologies. From projects using early supercomputers and the dawn of the web to contemporary global innovation and artistic initiatives, David has been a champion for new forms of creativity and expression enabled by technology.
His current work focuses on artificial intelligence and machine learning, asking if it is ‘inevitable that only our largest organizations, with their vast data sets, will decide how we will use AI? Will AI simply reinforce and accelerate the inequalities and biases that already polarize society and threaten our planet? What if, instead, we could start small? To work at the scale of the personal. To engage directly with AI. Could doing so allow us to develop new intuitions and understandings of what the technology is, and what it could enable?’
To David, beauty and aesthetic experiences are a powerful way to engage critically with technology.
By using intentionally small data sets, often photos taken from the rural context of his farm in upstate New York, David trains the machine to build a limited understanding of the natural world.
The work explores how aesthetic experiences can give a fresh start to how we think about artificial intelligence. And its scale highlights the irrationality of AI and its unique and unknowable materiality.
‘Learning Nature’ by David Young
Each book is signed and numbered as part of an edition of 100
Available at KVG online store
The Artist, writing about his Flowers and Winter Woods works -which are part of the ‘Learning Nature’ project - states: ‘Nothing that emerges is accurate, but the work isn’t asking for accuracy - it’s asking for the machine to build its own unique vision of the natural world.
What I’ve discovered, through the process of helping the machine learn nature, is that it is indeed a symbiotic process. The “artist” must tune the imagery that’s put into the “machine” to craft its interpretation of nature. And the artist must continue to select the work that the machine creates (much like photographers would use a contact sheet) in order to make the most unique, and frankly beautiful, interpretation of nature.’
“Training the machine with limited data reveals the irrationality, and the beauty, of AI.”
David Young is also interested in exploring the strangeness of how the machine learns and creates.
‘Given that we can’t help but use human terms to describe the behaviour of AI systems, might machine “emotions” be a new way for us to approach and understand AI? Could romanticism – emphasizing the free expression of the machine’s emotions as the most authentic source of aesthetic experience – be the foundation for a new AI aesthetic?
These images are an exploration of the materiality of AI. Treating the machine as a Tabula Rasa, or blank slate, I trained it with no more than a handful of images – solid colors or basic shapes. The resulting works ask us to consider the emotions that might be present in the machine as it creates.’
For more information we highly recommend reading his essay ‘Tabula Rasa’.
David’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions - including the Automat und Mensch show at Kate Vass Galerie - and magazines like ESPACE art actuel, IMPULSE - DAS MAGAZIN DER VOLKSWAGENSTIFTUNG and IEEE Computer Graphics magazine.
David Young
A Line is a Pixel Expressing Itself (m,b70h,9011,4-20,4,22,11,4,27-c), 2020
From the ‘Manipulations’ series
The works is available as unique NFT on the blockchain and as a print.
Kate Vass Galerie is glad to announce that selected works by David Young will be exhibited at CADAF Online next week, including one his latest pieces from the new series ‘Manipulations’ - Manipulated AI / Machine Learning generated images.
“We believe that the machine is creating images similar to what it was shown. But this prioritization on the visual reflects our own human biases and prejudices. The machine “sees” differently from us, and, so too, what it creates may not be entirely visible to our eyes. By manipulating the machine-created images I seek to reveal that which is not visible to us, but may be apparent, perhaps even obvious, to the machine. What are the hidden patterns, or the “irrational logic,” embedded within images created by the machine?”
David Young works are available as unique NFTs on the blockchain and as beautiful prints.
EDIGMA Semibreve Award 2020: Open Call for Artists
A new edition of the EDIGMA SEMIBREVE Award will take place in 2020, sponsored by EDIGMA.
EDIGMA SEMIBREVE Award is established to celebrate and promote the creation of works that explore the interactivity, sound and image supported through the use of digital technologies.
Applications are open until June 30th.
For more info about the award regulation and application please go to http://www.festivalsemibreve.com.
EDIGMA is an European company, based in Portugal, leader in the development of interactive experiences, multi-touch technology and digital signage projects.
SEMIBREVE Festival, has built a formidable reputation for being one of the most exciting annual events on the international exploratory music and digital arts calendar. In previous editions, Semibreve has presented unique collaborations by some of the most revered electronic music artists from around the word as well as presenting a programme of new work produced in the digital art’s field.
“Offset XYZ”, by German media artist Andreas Lutz was the winner of the 2019 EDIGMA SEMIBREVE Award:
http://andreaslutz.com/offset-xyz/
The winner will have the work exhibited during the 2020 edition of the SEMIBREVE festival and at EDIGMA’s showroom in Lisbon, Portugal.
We invite you to apply and spread the word!
New In: Osinachi series “COVID-19: A General State of Anxiety”
We are glad to announce that 3 brand-new cryptoworks by dear artist Osinachi have been released on SuperRare as NFTs as part of his specific series: “COVID-19: A General State of Anxiety”.
The works in the series engage with subjects who are navigating the realities of living in the global pandemic, COVID-19. Osinachi has documented history through this work, especially as it relates to how the pandemic has affected lives in his home country Nigeria.
The artworks specifically explore the various states of anxiety that has been prevalent as a response to the pandemic. For example, while some subjects are overwhelmed with ennui, others are looking for a way to stay alive during the pandemic – hence the embracing of spirituality/religiosity as means of salvation.
Osinachi, To Keep The Shower Running, 2020
This artwork references the psychological effects that being stuck in a space for too long could have on a person. From wiping down every surface to other heightened personal hygiene practices, there is a general sense of distrust between people and what they once regarded as their personal space. Given the realities of lockdowns, people are forced to lazy around indoors, most times leading to ennui.
The pieces are part of a larger exhibition at CADAF Online 2020 as facilitated by Kate Vass Galerie in collaboration with the artist.
Reserve price for the NFTs on SuperRare is 8 ETH each. There is also the option of buying the pieces as an NFT+print bundle, which would mean that the NFT would go for a discounted price.
Osinachi, Trust Doesn’t Matter Anymore, 2020
Osinachi, The Prophecy, 2020
The first work above, ‘Trust Doesn’t Matter Anymore’, is an interpretation of one of the most shared problems during the coronavirus pandemic – the inability of many people to get a haircut. Allowing someone to give you a haircut comes with heavy trust, with the pandemic, many people are forced to trash that trust and just go for it with whomever they can get to give them a haircut.
While for ‘The Prophecy’, Osinachi shares ‘When COVID-19 hit Nigeria, it was only a matter of time before people started seeking protection in religion. The wave has become so much so that while practitioners of African Traditional Religion claim to have a solution for anyone who gets infected, practitioners of Christianity are also selling the same message.’
More works to come, stay tuned! And do not miss CADAF online next week from June 25 until 28!
Sofia Crespo dEBUTS on SuperRare editorial
We are very happy to announce that our Artist Studio Visit with Sofia Crespo has been highlighted in the first SuperRare editorial. We would like to thank Super Rare Team for including us as a monthly contributor to its newly launched editorial. We are glad to introduce more artists through various content: interviews or videos with intent to enable people to get to know the artist and learn his/her practice.
At the following link you can read the article and watch the exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ video tour in case you missed it: https://editorial.superrare.co/2020/05/28/introducing-sofia-crespo-virtual-artist-studio-visit/
Sofia Crespo is a generative artist working with neural networks and machine learning with a huge interest in biology-inspired technologies.
Sofia Crespo, hideseek_hope_9078
Laterally with Sofia’s introduction, several collaborative artworks were also feat. in the publication and now available on Superrare. For example, [[chromatophores]] project is an artwork resulted from the partnership with an engineer Andrew Pouliot and another fruitful collaboration with artist Dark Fractures is ‘Artificial Remnants’, an ongoing exploration in Artificial Life. This unique NFT ‘biomimicry_003’, a GAN generated sequence part of the Artificial Remnants project got recently acquired on SuperRare by artist Hackatao and we couldn’t be happier to see artists supporting each other!
Sofia Crespo, biomimicry_003
Sofia Crespo, hide&seek_bonding_9823
Sofia Crespo, radical_scyphozoa_love
Brand-new works from her latest series, including Neural Zoo, are now available as unique NFTs on both SuperRare and OpenSea, as well as beautiful prints in our online store.
Kate Vass Galerie is glad to present selected works by Sofia Crespo at the upcoming online art fair CADAF Online from June 25th until 28th, 2020.
Stay tuned and don’t’ miss it!
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF our new video series as KVG Virtual Artist Studio visits - TODAY WITH SOFIA CRESPO FROM HER STUDIO IN BERLIN, GERMANY!
Starting today, we are launching our first video from our new series as KVG Virtual Artist Studio visits! Short films are created out of desire to give a sneak pick of how the artists work and talk about their practices.
Sofia Crespo is our first artist, inviting us on an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ video tour of her studio!
Title: biomimicry_003
Year: 2020
Authors: Dark Fractures & Sofia Crespo
Series: Artificial Remnants
Technique: GANs
Duration: 00:04
‘Can we use new technologies to dream up biodiversities that do not exist ?’ - Sofia is a generative artist working with neural networks and machine learning with a huge interest in biology-inspired technologies. One of her main focuses is the way organic life uses artificial mechanisms to simulate itself and evolve, this implying the idea that technologies are a biased product of the organic life that created them and not a completely separated object. On the side, she is also hugely concerned with the dynamic change in the role of the artists working with machine learning techniques.
Sofia is guiding us through a little journey where you can get the amazing opportunity to see where and how she produces her work, with a special focus on her latest series Artificial Remnants developed together with artist Dark Fractures and ‘{}Chromatophores’ created with engineer Andrew Pouliot:
Title: chromatic_meditations()
Authors: Sofia Crespo & Andrew Pouliot
Year: 2020
Series: Chromatophores
Technique: GANs
Duration: 00:09
“The pigment-bearing organs, or chromatophores, that enable many cephalopods to change the colouring and patterns of their skin in order to camouflage themselves are thought not merely to increase the odds of survival, but also be a means of communication. These works are communicative meditation wherein the generative output of an aquatically trained neural
network is interacted with, and gently manipulated, so as to create a (bio)mimicry of multiple cells acting in concert to convey tonality, atmosphere and accentuation.”
Selected works from {}Chromatophores, Artificial Remnants and Neural Zoo projects are available for sale exclusively at Kate Vass Galerie store as unique works digitally and on the blockchain.
Sofia, recently interviewed by CLOT magazine, shares
‘… My work aims to visually understand the shapes of nature using new technologies such as deep learning. Working on Neural Zoo has led me to reflect on the meaning of creativity, the functioning of our visual cortex for pattern recognition, and the evolution of life in itself with its adaptations and challenges.
The fact that Neural Networks got abstractly inspired by the functioning of the visual cortex, led me to think about the flow of information in the creative process ie the way as a child I developed a phobia of jellyfish, which eventually became a fascination for the visual elements of the jellyfish and finally the focus of an artwork. I wondered if there’s a ‘dataset’ of human experiences in our brains, that we constantly filter through and rearrange, and that ‘rearranging’ of the elements into novel ones is what we refer to as creativity. No matter how hard I try, I can’t imagine a colour that I haven’t previously seen, but I can imagine combinations of the ones I have seen, similarly, a neural network can’t create something out of the blue from a dataset that hasn’t been fed to it but it can recombine elements from data that has been given to it.’
Sofia Crespo
{unfolding_2121}, 2020
Neural Zoo series
Technique: Convolutional Neural Network
P.S. First of all, we would like to say thank you to Sofia for taking her time to invest in this project , it is a real pleasure to work with her and the works that she creates are absolutely stunning! Secondly, we would like to encourage everyone to place comments and questions to the artist after watching the “studio visit”, so we can follow up and respond to all in our next chapter with Sofia Crespo!
Enjoy it!
Kate Vass Team
Christie’s and Warhol Foundation to Present Photographs Sale for Coronavirus Relief
From the mountains of Colorado, to the beaches of Montauk, to the tulips lining New York City’s Park Avenue, Andy Warhol knew how to capture the beauty of the everyday scenes that surrounded him. Commonly known as the “Master of Pop,” Better Days features a different, but ever important, side of Warhol’s body of work. Christie’s is delighted to support the Andy Warhol Foundation’s recent emergency relief fund for artists through Better Days, featuring original photography by Warhol. Proceeds will contribute to the Foundation’s endowment, allowing it to support artist-centered organizations, the creation of new work, and projects that make significant contributions to the visual arts field. Let us transport you on Warhol’s travels across the country and bring you to “Better Days.”
“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.” – Andy Warhol
Source: Christie’s
To the online-only sale & browse lots please visit: Andy Warhol: Better Days
sofia crespo artist studio visit - exclusive kate vass galerie series !
We are excited to launch our new series as KVG Virtual Artist Studio visits. Short films are created out of desire to give a sneak pick of how the artists work and talk about their practices. Usually, only few people get to know or have time to travel and visit the artists in person, we wanted to give an audience a taste of what it was like to meet the artists face to face, and get a snack-sized introduction to the artist’s world through a series of short, playful videos with still profound content.
We at Kate Vass Galerie are glad to share a short preview of what will come as our first virtual studio visit! Sofia Crespo is inviting us on an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ video tour of her studio! Sofia Crespo is an artist working with a huge interest in biology-inspired technologies. One of her main focuses is the way organic life uses artificial mechanisms to simulate itself and evolve, this implying the idea that technologies are a biased product of the organic life that created them and not a completely separated object. On the side, she is also hugely concerned with the dynamic change in the role of the artists working with machine learning techniques. Sofia will guide us through a little journey where we will get an amazing opportunity to see where and how she produces her work, with a special focus on her latest series ‘{}Chromatophores’ created together with engineer Andrew Pouliot:
“The pigment-bearing organs, or chromatophores, that enable many cephalopods to change the colouring and patterns of their skin in order to camouflage themselves are thought not merely to increase the odds of survival, but also be a means of communication. These works are communicative meditation wherein the generative output of an aquatically trained neural network is interacted with, and gently manipulated, so as to create a (bio)mimicry of multiple cells acting in concert to convey tonality, atmosphere and accentuation.”
Selected works from {}Chromatophores will be soon available for sale exclusively at Kate Vass Galerie as unique works digitally and on the blockchain.
Don’t miss it!
HAPPY EASTER! SPECIAL OFFER ON SELECTED WORKS
Easter has always been a moveable feast, but this year that takes on new meaning as many enjoy their Easter Sunday dinners virtually and bring the Easter egg hunts indoors. In this spirit, we have made a selection of some artworks that you can browse online and grant along the 10% discount as a gift for you, therefore to add those works to your existing collection or treat your loved ones with the special gift, or maybe start your collection now and benefit from the Easter offer!
The promo is valid from April 5th until April 25th, 2020 for all online purchases on our website. Check them out!
*Shipping worldwide is available, with little delays to some locations. We will gladly calculate best quote for you!
Happy Easter from Kate Vass Team!
Next Generation: AI meets human creativity in Sofia Crespo’s Neural Zoo
FREYA HUTCHINGS
FEBRUARY 11TH 2020
Sofia Crespo is a Berlin-based digital artist and recent Applied Computer Science graduate. She uses machine learning techniques to create unnatural images of nature. With an interest in the workings of the human brain, Crespo looks at the similarities between techniques of AI image formation, and the way that humans express themselves creatively and cognitively recognize their world. This, combined with her fascination of shapes, forms and colors found in nature, results in a series of awe inspiring images that force our brains to engage with nature in entirely new ways.
Crespo's work brings into question the potential of AI in artistic practice and its ability to reshape our understandings of creativity. Indeed, AI may influence the things we make as much as we influence it. If an artists’ equipment has always been an extension of the artist, where does machine learning stand in this balance?
We spoke with Crespo to hear more about her project, Neural Zoo..
READ FULL INTERVIEW ON NEXTNATURE.NET
OSINACHI EXHIBITION @ KVG FEATURED ON Brittle Paper
February 18th, 2020
The Nigerian visual artist and writer Osinachi is set for his debut solo show. Themed “Osinachi: Existence as Protest”, it aims to provoke critical thinking while challenging preconceived norms. In his usual distinct style, Osinachi uses colorful art to offer an alternative interpretation to literature, politics, and ordinary living. The show will be held at the Kate Vass Galerie in Zürich, Switzerland, in March 2020, and will feature limited edition prints and NFTs.
Osinachi, who is noted as Africa’s foremost cryptoartist, is especially remarkable for his use of Microsoft Word—rather than art applications—to create art. Some of his pieces appear in the Art Naija Series anthologies—Enter Naija: The Book of Places (2016) and Work Naija: The Book of Vocations (2017)—as well as in 14’s anthologies—We Are Flowers (2017) and The Inward Gaze (2018)—the last of which had its cover designed by him. We previously covered his work, when he was still making the switch from literature to visual art. He is an editor at 14 and at 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. He is the first Nigerian to showcase artworks at the Ethereal Summit, a conference in New York that seeks to bridge the gap between technology and art through blockchain.
Osinachi
DAVID YOUNG on ESPACE art actuel cover
Lancement ESPACE art actuel
N° 124 (hiver 2020)
Dossier « IA, art sans artistes ? / AI, art without artists? »
CIRCA, art actuel
Samedi, 25 janvier 2020, 15 h à 18 h
372, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, espace 444
Dossier : IA, art sans artistes ? / AI, art without artists?
Comment pouvons-nous aujourd’hui situer l’artiste ou, plus largement, l’acte de création faisant appel à l’intelligence artificielle ? Codirigé par Nathalie Bachand, ce dossier comprend 9 textes signés par des historiens de l’art, des artistes et des philosophes qui, chacun à leur façon, posent des regards à la fois sensibles et rigoureux sur cette question.
[Lire l'éditorial et consulter le sommaire complet]
Auteurs/autrices (dossier) : Sofian Audry, Nathalie Bachand, Daphné Boxer, Andreas Broeckmann, Grégory Chatonsky, Anne-Marie Dubois, Martin Gibert, David A. J. Murrieta Flores
Auteurs/autrices (autres sections) : Peter Dubé, Julie Hétu, Stefan Krämer, Elise Anne LaPlante, Éric Legendre, Joni Low, Camille Paulhan, Marie Perrault, Jean-Michel Quirion, Bénédicte Ramade, Julia Skelly, Mathieu Teasdale, Manon Tourigny
Artistes (dossier): Sofian Audry, Robbie Barrat, Adam Basanta, Zach Blas, Ben Bogart, Sam Bourgault, Monty Cantsin?, Grégory Chatonsky, Ian Cheng, Collectif Obvious, Jake Elwes, Justine Emard, fabric |ch (Christophe Guignard et Patrick Keller), Johannes Heldén, Pierre Huyghe, David Jhave Johnston, Håkan Jonson, Lawrence Lek, Seiko Mikami, François Quévillon, Anna Ridler, Helena Sarin, Shinseungback Kimyonghun, David Young
Artistes (autres sections) : Numa Amun, Laura Aguilar, Panos Balomenos, Cindy Baker, Steve Bates, Jennifer Bélanger, Elisabeth Belliveau, Rebecca Belmore, Maeve Brennan, A.A. Bronson et Adrian Stimson, Philippe Caron Lefebvre, Dana Claxton, Revital Cohen et Tuur Van Bal, Dave Cooper, Noémie DesRoches, Patricia Dominguez, Jeneen Frei Mjoot, Cyprien Gaillard, Gauri Gil, Jérome Havre, Marguerite Humeau, G.B. Jones, Keyezua, Kapwani Kiwanga, Sholem Krishtalka, Anouk Kruithof, Manuela Lalic, Corine Lemieux, Zachari Logan, Jumana Manna, Izumi Miyazaki, Kent Monkman, Caroline Monnet, Francis Montillaud, Bridget Moser, Diane Obomsawin, Rafael Ortega, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Paul Painlevé, Celia Perrin Sidarous, , Napachie Pootoogook, Lisa Rave, Jocelyn Robert, Abel Rodriguez, Natalie Sappier (Samaqani Cocahq), Sarah Saunders, Susan Schuppli, Cauleen Smith, Charles Stankievech, Althea Thauberger et Kite, Anna Torma, Camille Turner, Mia Sandhu, Claire Savoie.
THE TOOLS OF GENERATIVE ART, FROM FLASH TO NEURAL NETWORKS by Jason Bailey for ART IN AMERICA
Great article by our dear curator Jason Bailey for Art In America, make sure to read it!
Like it or not, we are all computer nerds now. All aspects of our lives are driven by computation and algorithms: how we learn, work, play, even date. Given this situation, one could argue that generative art—work created at least in part with autonomous, automated systems—is the art that best reflects our time.
Generative art was initially rejected by the cultural establishment as the domain of computer scientists and mathematicians. Grace Hertlein says a colleague called her a “whore” and a “traitor” for her use of the computer as an art-making tool in the late 1960s.¹ In a 1970 New York Times review, critic John Canaday compared a display of computer art he saw at a convention to “popular sideshows” and “circuses.”² But recent years have seen a spike in institutional interest in generative art, as evidenced by a number of museum shows.³ Perhaps this embrace is linked to the increased accessibility of technology, as computers and network connections have become commonplace in homes in the last two decades.
5 Digital Art Trends to Expect in 2020
By Elena Zavelev on Observer
The year 2019 showed that the contemporary digital art market, while still in its infancy, has substantial potential for growth. In 2019, new media art was frequently shown at contemporary art museums worldwide, including Nam June Paik’s show at Tate Modern, the exhibition “The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics” at New Museum and MoMA’s “Surrounds” show of 11 contemporary installations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) art was a key point of discussion at Christie’s Art+Tech Summit in New York as well at Kate Vass Gallery’s show in Zurich this summer. This all in the same year that Pace Galleryannounced the launch of PaceX, a new initiative to promote projects that unite art and technology. It was also the year that we at the New Art Academy launched CADAF, an art fair dedicated entirely to digital art, with two successful editions—one in New York and one in Miami. At both these events, collector interest served to further illustrate the growing desire for various digital art mediums including Artificial Intelligence and Augmented/Virtual reality works. Now, with CADAF’s Miami edition under the belt, I’d like to take a look into 2020 and touch upon the trends that, in my opinion, will dominate the market in the next year.
COOL HUNTING | MIAMI ART WEEK 2019: PREVIEWING THE CONTEMPORARY AND DIGITAL ART FAIR
Cool Hunting featuring CADAF Miami, See you all there 5-8 Dec 2019 !
Read full article here
miamiartzine | There's a New Fair in Town for Miami Art Week CADAF: A New Acronym for the Art Season Contemporary and Digital Art Fair
There's a New Fair in Town for Miami Art Week
CADAF: A New Acronym for the Art Season Contemporary and Digital Art Fair
Art Basel Miami Beach is being teed up on the 2019 schedule whether you have shaken the last dregs of summer sand out of your shoes or not. Download the fall season into your hard drive. It's time to ramp up.
Digital art is getting it's due as the world spins faster and faster like plates on a juggler's sticks. Truth in truisms applies here, the more you know the more you realize you don't know.
Debuting in May of this year in NYC, CADAF interprets their fair as works which "include the diversity of digital mediums ranging from the traditional, such as Video and Stop Motion art, through to creative uses of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality".
Partnering with the Wynwood Business Improvement District (BID) CADAF provides a physical platform to educate audiences in all aspects of digital art. In 2019 several fragments of this genre (ie Blockchain, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence) have produced separate conferences. CADAF brings this diversity and latest innovation in it’s entirety to the 2019 Wynwood fair. Forty artists (TBA) will be represented including several from the South Florida demographic.
Digital art is following the photographs trajectory into the hearts of curators and collectors. When the medium of photography first began seeping into the fine art realm and for sometime after, there were questions of rightfully belonging. It offered a new way to understand experience, but the big question "Was it art?", hung in the air? The creative digital world has gone through the same uncertainty.
I connected with Elena Zavelev, Founder and CEO of CADAF and the New Art Academy to fine tune a few points of interest.
Irene Sperber: Is there still a line between art and the digital medium? Blockchain-based platforms now deal with the issue of provenance. Was there a pivotal event(s) that brought digital art into focus for collectors?
In 2001, Artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet art and an online gallery space for commissions of net art and new media art, was launched.
Recent critical events for collectors of digital art community include:
Last year, October 2018 - AI artwork sold at an auction at Christie’s New York (Portrait of Edmond Belamy). Achieved 45 times its high estimate at $432,500 and received a lot of press, where discussions around AI copyright were brought to the fore; educating a wider audience on the intricacies of digital art.
This March (2019) AI work Memories of Passersby I by Mario Klingemann sells at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction
IS: Are there still stumbling blocks to overcome regarding its solid place in the art world?
EZ: "Blockchain has provided a new, very promising tool for artists and collectors to store provenance and ownership information, playing a role in empowering the art market with more tracking capabilities.
However the technology is still new and the solutions offered to artists and collectors yet have to be polished and refined to be adopted by the broader art market. For example, some of these provenance tools can be used by anybody creating the "trash in, trash out" problem (someone famously uploaded the Mona Lisa to one of these databases under his name. Blockchain does not solve this issue). Other tools are very advanced technically but lack onboarding easiness for the art market to make a real use of it. It is still far from a mass adoption scenario.
This will change with an increasing number of tech-savvy collectors along with the proliferation of digital tools supporting the growth and development of the digital art market. It is an amazing time to witness the progress and help educate artists, collectors and professionals about these tools with online resources but also curation and events like CADAF art fairs."
IS: There are many aspects to digital art, what, specifically should CADAF educate us about this relatively modern creative medium?
EZ: "Great question - as advocates of digital and new media art one of our main priorities is to help demystify the medium for the wider audience.
Topics we focus on include: collecting digital art, artist copyright and royalties, display and conservation practices, and much more. We also explore the market and investment opportunities within the digital arts and how new technologies, including blockchain, are supporting transactional security and market transparency."
IS: What is the focus of Digital Art right now? AI? Has the Miami CADAF fair been curated differently than, say, the New York fair?
EZ: "With recent auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's showing successful sales in AI work, this medium has garnered a lot of attention in the market.
This being said, CADAF offers a platform to show both large-scale immersive digital projects, but just as importantly, a place for independent digital artists of all digital mediums to show their work.
For our Miami edition, we will continue to show the diversity of digital mediums including VR, AI, Blockchain and Video art from international galleries and artists.
In addition to this, we are thrilled to be based on the MANA Contemporary campus, positioned in the center of Wynwood, one of Miami's most creative communities. This has allowed us to collaborate with local artists and ArtTech community and showcase both at the upcoming fair."
I believe we need to save room for visiting the new fair during our cultural Miami twirl December 5-8.
Thursday, December 5th: Test drive this new fair at the opening Party and Exhibition Preview to include installations, a VIP Pre-Sale and, naturally, drinks and a DJ to help us log on.
The fair will continue Friday through Sunday with a series of panel discussions, artist Q&As and performances.
CADAF Fair Hours:
Opening Party and Exhibition Previews: Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019: 6-11 p.m.
General Admission.
Friday, Dec. 6, 2019: 10:30 a.m – 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019: 11:30 a.m – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019: 11:30 a.m – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Mana Wynwood C&L Building 2400 NW 5th Ave, Miami, FL 33127.
For Tickets: cadaf.art
And Talks/Paneldiscussions/Q and A and performances: cadaf.art/cadaf-talks