Suzette Bell-Roberts reviews the Diriyah Art Futures’ inaugural exhibition, curated by Jérôme Neutres, which explores AI, code, and interactivity as new creative frontiers.
The inaugural exhibition, at the newly opened art hub Diriyah Art Futures ‘Art Must Be Artificial,’ curated by Jérôme Neutres, showcases cutting-edge digital installations powered by state-of-the-art technology. The exhibition represents a crucial moment in the evolution of digital artistry.
Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
I joined curator Jérôme Neutres on a walkabout of the exhibition, which he introduced with a quote by the late pioneer of generative art, Edmond Couchot, “Computing is a techno-logy, meaning a technic which is also a language.”
Since the 1960s, artistic expression has evolved with digital technology, leading to the rise of Computational Art, which blends creativity with algorithms. This art form reflects the emergence of a new digital civilisation and proves that computing is a legitimate artistic medium with limitless visual possibilities. Today’s artists use advanced algorithms, machine learning, and AI to explore creativity, artificial intelligence, and the future of human cognition in the digital age. The exhibition highlights how artists like Vera Molnár, Manfred Mohr, Ryoji Ikeda, and Refik Anadol have liberated the computer’s creative language, pushing the boundaries of visual art.
To contextualise the exhibition, Neures continued, “The computer has since become an artist’s tool and established a true creative language in its own right. The artists we present here have tried to liberate that language from its communicative functions to develop it as a poetic platform. Using algorithms and generativity to develop new shapes and colours, artists like Vera Molnár, Manfred Mohr, Ryoji Ikeda and Refik Anadol have pushed the boundaries of visual arts, opening new territories for others to explore.”
Installation view of work by Harold Cohen and Manfred Mohr. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
The exhibition opens with Harold Cohen’s AARON, an autonomous art-making program he began in the 1960s, which evolved from primitive forms to complex figurative drawings. Nearby, Vera Molnar’s early algorithmic art features geometric patterns with subtle variations, created by pausing her program mid-process to reveal original trapezoidal forms, blending precision and irregularity.
Manfred Mohr, Walk-Through-Raster. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
Across the room, Manfred Mohr’s Cubic Limit morphs a cube through multiple dimensions, pulsing with rhythmic energy inspired by his jazz background. Frieder Nake’s Walk-Through-Raster (1965) uses mathematical matrices to generate unique patterns, where each image represents a fleeting instance of a larger algorithmic potential, with the code as the true creative force.
Lulwah Alhomoud, Al-Quddoos (Language of Existence series). Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts.
Lulwah Alhomoud’s Al-Quddoos, from her Language of Existence series, uses ciphered Arabic script to form a snowflake-like structure. Radiating stillness and spirituality in soft violet hues, the work bridges sacred language and modern abstraction.
Daniel Rozin, RGB Peg Mirror. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts.
Daniel Rozin’s RGB Peg Mirror, part of his Mechanical Mirrors series, is the artist’s first mirror to reflect viewers in full colour. It uses red, green, and blue coloured knobs that tilt towards a light to create a colour portrait, similar to a computer screen. The piece has two modes: one where the viewer’s reflection is displayed and another where it animates with vibrant, undulating colours based on algorithms.
Peter Kogler. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
The upper floor of the exhibition ends in a room covered in hypnotic, swirling wallpaper designed specifically for the show by artist Peter Kogler. Though the pattern is static, it creates the illusion of movement, making the space feel fluid and distorted. By transforming the flat walls into an illusionistic environment, Kogler challenges the viewer’s perception
Yining Fei and Chuck Kuan, Breakfast Ritual: Art Must Be Artificial. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
On the staircase leading to the exhibition’s second part, we pause to view Breakfast Ritual: Art Must Be Artificial, a video by Yining Fei and Chuck Kuan. Featuring an AI as a young girl performing a ritual and repeating “Art must be artificial, artist must be artificial.” Set in a post-Anthropocene future, the AI recreates a breakfast scene, reflecting a world gone yet ongoing and evoking ancestral memory through fragmented history.
Miguel Chevalier, Fractal Flowers series. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
Downstairs, Miguel Chevalier’s large-scale projection from his Fractal Flowers series reimagines plant life through digital art. Using fractal mathematics and AI, the work generates unique geometric flower forms that bloom, wither, and regenerate continuously, creating a mesmerising 3D illusion that blends nature with technology.
Edmond Couchot and Michel Bret, Les Pissenlits. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
The interactive installation Les Pissenlits features nine dandelions that respond to subtle movements. When the viewer blows into a sensor, the seeds scatter and fall, regenerating as they wait for a new interaction. First presented in 1990, it is one of the earliest works of interactive digital art with 3D computer images.
Anna Ridler, Mosaic Virus, 2019. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
In the same room is Mosaic Virus (2019), a three-screen video installation by Anna Ridler, generated by AI. Using over 10,000 tulip photos taken during a season in Amsterdam, Ridler draws parallels between the 17th-century Tulip Mania and the cryptocurrency speculation today, with tulip stripes responding to bitcoin price fluctuations.
Leonel Moura, ARS (Art Robot Swarm) (detail). Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
In a large hall, unique abstract paintings created by ARS, a swarm of autonomous robots, hang on the walls. Created by Leonel Moura, this AI-based installation uses bioinspired behaviour, where robots gather information through sensors and stigmergy. The process demonstrates machine creativity with simple rules and bioinspired features, while video cameras webcast the painting’s evolution, showcasing a new form of art driven by AI.
David Quayola, Hercules and Nesus #A_01, 2021. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
The exhibition extends outdoors with video works by Michel Chevalier and virus-like augmented reality sculptures by Leonel Moura. David Quayola’s Hercules and Nesus #A_01 (2021) features a large industrial robot that live-sculpts endless variations of Giambologna’s 1599 masterpiece, never completing the full figure. Each attempt explores infinite possibilities, with the robot’s algorithm-driven strategies eclipsing the original craftsmanship and highlighting the machine’s creative potential.
John Gerrard, Western Flag, 2017. Photo: Suzette Bell-Roberts
On a landing, up a flight of stairs, is John Gerrard’s Western Flag (2017), a large-scale digital simulation shown on an LED panel. It recreates the site of the Lucas Gusher in Spindletop, Texas, the world’s first major oil discovery, now barren. The artwork features a flag made of perpetually renewing black smoke, symbolising the lasting impact of oil extraction. The simulation mirrors the Spindletop site, adjusting to the changing sun and seasons. It runs continuously in real-time, with no fixed beginning or end.
Artists include Aaajiao, Alan Rath, Anna Ridler, Casey Reas, Charles Sandison, Daniah Al-Saleh, Daniel Rozin, Davide Quayola, Edmond Couchot, Michel Bret, Elias Crespin, Frieder Nake, Harold Cohen, Haythem Zakaria, John Gerrard, Laila Shereen Sakr, Laurent Mignonneau, Christa Sommerer, Leo Villareal, Leonel Moura, Lulwah Alhomoud, Manfred Mohr, Miguel Chevalier, Muhannad Shono, Nasser Alshemimry, Peter Kogler, Refik Anadol, Ryoji Ikeda, Vera Molnar, Wang Yuyang, Yang Yongliang, Yining Fei.
The exhibition ran from November 26th 2024 – February 15th 2025 at Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Suzette Bell-Roberts is the Co-founder and Digital Editor of ART AFRICA magazine.
