Alexander Reben: I’m Not A Painter

Gazelli Art House proudly presents I’m Not A Painter, a crucial commentary on the role of emergent technologies by Alexander Reben.

About this event

Following 2021’s impactful AI-Mazing exhibition, I’m Not A Painter will be Reben’s second solo exhibition at Gazelli Art House, the second to be titled by an AI and, excitingly, the first to be accompanied by an AI-generated Press Release. This iteration of the series will first debut in Venice as part of the ULTRAMARIN exhibition, curated by Ulrich Schrauth (Artistic Director, VRHAM!).

Across a mixed media installation of wallpaper and oil painting, the exhibition displays an amalgamation of surreal imagery that feels at once familiar and remote. The latter becomes explicit with the gradual permeation of the uncanny. A feeling of uncertainty surfaces; just what are we observing? Indicative of their making, and certainly applicable to the arts in general, curiosity will often walk hand-in-hand with new frontiers.

About The Artist

Alexander Reben (B. 1985) is an artist and MIT-trained roboticist whose work probes the inherently human nature of the artificial. Using tools such as artificial philosophy, synthetic psychology, perceptual manipulation, and technological magic, he brings to light our inseparable evolutionary entanglement to the invention, which has unarguably shaped our way of being. This “art as experiment” allows us to understand who we are and consider whom we will become in our continued co-development with our artificial creations.

Reben’s artwork and research have been shown and published internationally, and he consults with major companies, guiding innovation for the future of the social machine. Among the first artists to be producing AI oil paintings, he has exhibited at Vitra Design Museum, MAK Museum Vienna, Design Museum Ghent, Vienna Biennale, ARS Electronica alongside IDFA, Tribeca Film Festival, TFI Interactive, Camden Film Festivals, Doc/Fest and the Boston Cyberarts Gallery. His work has been covered by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, Fast Company, Filmmaker Magazine, New Scientist, BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel, Cool Hunting and WIRED, among others. He has lectured at TED, SXSW, TTI Vanguard, Google, UC Berkeley, SMFA, CCA, MIT, and other universities. Reben has built robots for NASA and is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab, where he studied human-robot symbiosis and art. He is a 2016-2017 WIRED innovation fellow, a Stochastic Labs Resident, and visiting scholar in the UC Berkeley psychology department.