FRIEDER NAKE (B. 1938)

Acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of computer art is Frieder Nake (a former student of Max Bense), who designed his first programmed plotter drawings at the Technical University of Stuttgart in 1963 and visualized them on the "Graphomat" (ZUSE Z64) drawing machine. For the "Liebe Maschine, male mir" exhibition Frieder Nake dedicates his Genesis NFT "Homage to Gerhard Richter" as a continuation to "Hommage à Paul Klee", which was created in 1965 and paid tribute to the Bauhaus artist by the principle of chance. "Chance is better than me" Gerhard Richter was once quoted when he made colour charts based on algorithms. In Frieder Nake's hommage, an algorithm continuously generates Richter's striped images in endless variations.

Watch Frieder Nake as he speaks with Georg Bak about his inspiration behind his Genesis NFT drop, his decades long relationship with machines and computers, as well as his friendship with Vera Molnar. Explore the playlist with the videos.

Find out more about Frieder Nake on elementum.

MANFRED P. KAGE (B. 1935)

Among the most important pioneering works and inventions of Prof. Manfred P. Kage was the 'Polychromator', a kind of optical synthesizer for microphotography, invented in 1957, which is still unique worldwide. Manfred P. Kage created crystal-optical pictorial works of the series 'Microverse of Crystals' with the help of his polychromator. Manfred P. Kage had always made it his artistic and challenging task to uncover the aesthetics of the tiniest micro-worlds visually and to bring them tangibly to the viewers of his works, to make the invisible and the hidden visible and to let the microcosm merge with the meso- and macrocosm. Manfred P. Kage illuminates the unknown and hidden, the exotic ornaments of life and metamorphoses of our world, the inevitable connection of our human existence with nature and the cosmos- embedded in the 'all-encompassing rhythm of chaos and order.'

Find out more about Manfred P. Kage on elementum

HEIN GRAVENHORST (B. 1937)

A co-founder of the Generative Photography movement; together with Kilian Breier, Pierre Cordier, Hein Gravenhorst and Gottfried Jäger, Hein Gravenhorst has exhibited in major digital art exhibitions in the dawn of computer art, such as "New Tendencies IV" in Zagreb in 1968 and the "Wege zur Computerkunst" show in 1970. Hein Gravenhorst's artworks can be found in many prominent art collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. His artworks resemble the Op Art movement of his contemporaries, like Bridget Riley, and show proximity to the psychedelic visual effects and counterculture movement of the 1960s.

Find out more about Hein Gravenhorst on elementum.

ALEXANDER MORDVINTSEV (B. 1985)

One of the recent pioneers of digital art is Alexander Mordvintsev, who conducts scientific research at Google on visualizing deep neural networks. The artist became well known for his invention of the Deep Dream algorithm, a special form of artificial intelligence that he launched in the summer of 2015. In the "Liebe Maschine, male mir" group exhibition, Alexander Mordvintsev will present a new body of work from his latest series titled "Autumn Life". The visuals are created by a cellular automata based artificial life simulation and are inspired by the autumn forest and its delicate inhabitants.

Find out more about Alexander Mordvintsev on elementum.

GANBROOD (B. 1968)

Like every artist is expanding on the work of their most revered predecessors, in "S O M N I V M", Ganbrood uses visual themes that have always inspired him since his youth: mythology and fairytales, theater and film, painting and photography, video games and comics. Artificiality has always been a decisive element in Ganbrood's past work, whether using special effects and 3D animation for film or photographing actual events in a serene way that almost looked staged. The elements of contradictory mediums like fresco paintings and photography or 3D are battling for the spectator's conclusion of how to interpret what is perceived.

Find out more about Ganbrood on elementum.

ESPEN KLUGE (B. 1983)

As a composer, visual artist, and creative coder Espen Kluge is fascinated by spontaneity and the exploration of semi-randomness in moments of improvisation. This unique approach is reflected in his two series; "Alternatives" created in 2019, and "Lyrical Convergence" from 2022. Both use the same set of data but two different algorithms. The artworks showcase the diversity of human perception, objectivity, and subjectivity, where we see the transformation from figurative to abstraction.

Find out more about Espen Kluge on Kate Vass Galerie.