Awaken, Metamagical Hands

Gazelli Art House and Verisart announce their collaborative exhibition Awaken, Metamagical Hands, highlighting pioneering artists at the intersection of human creativity and computational potential.  Curated by John Maeda and Robert Norton, the exhibition features works by Robbie Barrat, Joshua Davis, Golan Levin, LIA, Lauren Lee McCarthy, John Maeda and Helena Sarin.

Awaken, Metamagical Hands displays new and never before seen works by artists who have pushed the boundaries of what can be visualised and created with code.

The exhibition chronicles pivotal transitions, from writing arcane computer programs in the manner of a mathematician to today’s natural language prompts that often serve as an easy shortcut to artistry.   At a time where everyone can now awaken the computer’s metamagical hands, and get those hands to go do the human’s bidding, these works give the viewer a chance to reflect on the long journey that brought us here.

“This exhibition celebrates the completely invisible hands in both the mind of the computer and in the mind of the artist. It’s not about computer programming or about artificial intelligence. It’s about the people who have made a mark in the computational medium, and who intend to make even more marks – whether they get carved indirectly by computer programming, the new wave of AI prompts, or even with their bare hands if necessary – to bring their points to the foreground,” the artist, engineer and curator, John Maeda writes.

Through a series of conversations chaired by John Maeda across time zones and continents, these artists have come together to chronicle transformative shifts and spotlight pivotal works from the past and present.

Starting with John Maeda’s early works from the 1990s and Golan Levin’s decades-long exploration of  interactive software art, the exhibition also encompasses the world of generative art with works by Joshua Davis, LIA and Helena Sarin and new physical works by Lauren Lee McCarthy and Robbie Barratt, who is showing in the UK for the very first time. Honouring their thirty years of friendship, LIA and Joshua Davis have collaborated on a site-specific installation and generative art drop. Through a combination of digital and physical, prints, NFTs and unique works, the viewer is invited to join this journey through the eyes of artists who are also masters of the technology’s metamagical hands.   “Amid the public’s perception of the boom and bust of the NFT market and the hype and hysteria around AI, these artists look beyond current market cycles and remind us of the unwavering commitment and undeniable integrity at the heart of their art,” writes Robert Norton, CEO and Founder of Verisart.

Many of the works on display experiment with the phygital, enabling collectors to buy a digital work and then claim an artist’s print or sculpture via Verisart’s patented blockchain certification technology.

Alongside the exhibition, Gazelli Art House will host a talk in September as part of the gallery’s educational program. This session will allow for deeper insights into the creative processes behind the showcased works, and explore the implication of these new technologies on the contemporary cultural landscape. Awaken, Metamagical Hands raises important questions about the boundaries of code as art and is bound to ignite timely and pressing conversations about the future of creativity. 

“Continuing our exploration of the past and present of code and following the success of the 2023 GEN/GEN: Generative Generations exhibition in partnership with Verisart, we’re delighted to work with some of these artists for the first time while reintroducing Lauren Lee McCarthy following her GAZELL.iO residency in 2022,” writes Mila Askarova, Founder of Gazelli Art House.