GAZELL.iO is delighted to present Deep Real Portraits by LoVid, GAZELL.iO's November artist-in-residence, as part of their ongoing project, heartsleeves.

About Deep Real Portraits

This project invites participants into a collaborative sit-down session with the artists, transforming portraiture through a uniquely immersive and generative process on the blockchain. The project begins with an abstract, code-based video art piece showcasing LoVid’s signature blend of symbols and shapes in a constantly shifting visual fabric. This video is stored on-chain and serves as the foundation for each participant’s portrait environment. During the live session, the collector is seated in a “portrait studio” where the generative video becomes an active, immersive backdrop, blending with the sitter’s features in real-time. Guided by LoVid, the participant’s face becomes entwined with colours, shapes, and patterns, which wrap and recontextualise their appearance, creating a layered and dynamic portrait. This session invites direct interaction, as participants make decisions with LoVid on colours, exposure, and framing, contributing their input to the evolving artwork. Each co-created portrait is then minted on the blockchain, adding it to the heartsleeves series, where each piece becomes part of a collective, living artwork and a testament to shared creative agency.

About LoVid

LoVid is a NY-based interdisciplinary artist duo working collaboratively since 2001. LoVid’s practice focuses on aspects of contemporary society where technology seeps into human culture and perception. Throughout their interdisciplinary projects over two decades, LoVid has maintained their signature visual and sonic aesthetic of color, pattern, and texture density, with disruption and noise. LoVid’s work captures an intermixed world layered with virtual and physical, materials and simulations, connection and isolation.

LoVid’s process includes home-made analog synthesizers, hand-cranked code, and tangible materials; their videos, textile works, performances, net-art, installations, and ERC-721 tokens have been exhibited worldwide for over two decades. LoVid’s work has been presented internationally at venues including: Budapest Art Factory, Museum of Moving Image (NY), Wave Hill, Brookfield Arts, RYAN LEE Gallery, Art Blocks Curated, Postmasters Gallery, Honor Fraser Gallery, VSOP Projects, New Discretions, And/Or Gallery, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, MoMAPS1, Issue Project Room, The Science Gallery Dublin, The Jewish Museum, The Kitchen, Daejeon Museum, Smack Mellon, Netherland Media Art Institute, and New Museum NY. LoVid’s projects have received grants and awards from organizations including: Guild Hall, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, NY Hall of Science, Graham Foundation, Signal Culture, Cue Art Foundation, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, Wave Farm, Rhizome, Franklin Furnace, Turbulence.org, New York Foundation for the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Center, Experimental TV Center, NY State Council of the Arts, and Greenwall Foundation.

LoVid’s videos are distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and their work is in the collections of private and public collections including the Whitney Museum, The Museum of Moving Image, The Parrish Museum, Thoma Foundation, Watermill Center, Butler Institute of American Art, Heckscher Museum.