Jean-Pierre Hébert, Emergences Grises VI, 1990; plotter drawing, in two layers, each layer drawn in an uninterrupted line, Chinese ink, 38 × 38 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and MUD Gallery
Featuring works spanning a diverse range of media including plotter drawing, generative art, AI system, video, game, animation, and robotic interactive installation, "AI, as Seen at the End of Ownership" is a group exhibition which explores how technology reshapes art traditions and fosters new conceptual expressions through human-machine collaboration. This exhibition is a response to the history of conceptual art and a question for the future: as algorithms infiltrate into art practices, what evolutionary paths will conceptual art follow?
Weiyi Li, Three in One, 2024, black walnut, basswood, pine, water-based paint, UV spray painting, 90 × 59 × 69 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Casey Reas, Untitled 5 (Not now. No, no.), 2020, video still, HD video (black and white, sound, 60fps, loop), 4' 7". Image courtesy of the artist
Yifan Jiang, One Sunday Morning, 2021, video still, animated video, 13' 12". Image courtesy of the artist and Meliksetian | Briggs
Generative art and conceptual art share roots in the 1960s yet have long followed different paths. Generative art uses computer algorithms to produce visual forms that are both consistent and endlessly varied; conceptual art, by contrast, emphasizes putting ideas ahead of physical objects, challenging traditional art’s focus on materiality and narrative. Today, the widespread use of artificial intelligence has blurred this boundary. Text-based prompts have replaced complex programming as the core directive for creation. Latent Diffusion Models simplify image generation through dimensionality reduction, allowing artists to control visual output by simply entering text. This machine-like “conceptualized” output not only echoes the idea of conceptual art pioneer Sol LeWitt’ s idea that “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art,” but also raises practical questions regarding issues such as algorithmic “hallucinations” (unexpected results due to data bias), hidden computational layers, and deepening biases in large-scale model training.
XI Lei & Aven Le Zhou, _Card MaterialsRecycling Agriculture, 2025. Board game, mixed materials (digital microblading, seeds), dimension variable. Image courtesy of the artists.
Dan Li, Gobi-hauntology, 2025, inkjet prints, sound, 85 × 68 cm. Image courtesy of the artist
Zoe Li, I Tell the Moon My Secret and the Moon Tells Me Yours, 2021, interacting with the moon outdoors, robotic arm, moon, photographs, video, dimension variable. Image courtesy of the artist
The exhibition is divided into three sections. The first section presents generative art alongside contemporary works that engage with technology. On one hand, generative art offers an intuitive understanding of computation, recursion, and systematic design; on the other, it invites us to reconsider that these “algorists” are not merely generating similar yet varied lines through repetitive rules, but are conducting cross-disciplinary cultural experiments that probe the essence of technology.The second section uses cutting-edge technology to explore the purpose of art in an AI context, challenging the limitations, noise, and unexpected outcomes produced by computation as well as the social biases that may be reinforced through recursive processes. The final section revisits the issue of “authorship.” Although this topic has been widely discussed in the context of internet and post- internet art, the era of artificial intelligence offers a completely new framework for understanding creation and ownership. Shaped by the evolution from Web 1.0 through 2.0 to 3.0, art ownership is beginning—or may have already shifted—toward a shared model with machines. Algorithms can analyze, process, and recognize images, thereby “possessing” a form of knowledge or understanding. This notion of “algorithmic ownership” is a metaphor that, in a data-driven age, challenges not only the boundaries of copyright law but also brings new insights into the nature of digital objects.
Ziyang Wu & Shengyu Meng, One and Three Objects, and An Attempt at Exhausting the Object, 2024. Live generated interactive AI system (apple, hammer, lock and key, clock, mirror, hairpin, gun, car, chess, medicine, tree branches, stone, graphic card, mobile phone, floppy disk), dimension variable. Image courtesy of the artists.
Li Yifan, C-MEMORY035-450x600H308-P1#LYF07042024, 2024, digital painting, giclee print, aluminum frame, 45x60 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Inner flow Gallery.
Matthew Plummer-Fernández, Metamultimouse056, 2022, 3D Prints, AI-interpolated CGI animation, H 50cm, H 25cm. Image courtesy of the artist
About the Curator
Jianru Wu is a writer and curator, currently working as a researcher at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests cover feminism, the philosophy of technology, nontraditional kinships, and creative institutional practice. In 2019, she founded the Media Lab of Times Museum, which was designed within the institutional critique framework to address the current ossification of art institutions. She served as the director of Media Lab until 2022.
Jianru Wu has extensive experience as a writer and editor. She has edited books and publications for artists and museums and was an editor for the “One Hand Clapping” exhibition publication at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2017-2018. From 2012 to 2017, she worked as the senior editor of LEAP magazine. Her writings have been published in Artforum International, Ocula, Art Review, and others. Jianru Wu has received several fellowships, including the Asian Cultural Council fellowship in 2017 and the Jane Farver Arts Foundation curator fellowship at International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York) in 2019. She has been a member of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Advisory Board from 2020 to 2023.
About the Exhibition
Vernissage: March 21, 2025 (by invitation only)
Exhibition Date: March 22 - June 22, 2025
Venue: Times Museum
Participating artists:
aaajiao, Maurice Benayoun, Hans Dehlinger, Julian Junyuan Feng, Matthew Plummer-Fernández, Raven Kwok, Jean-Pierre Hébert, Yifan Jiang, Dan Li, Zoe Li, Weiyi Li, Li Yifan, Casey REAS, Roman Verostko, Ziyang Wu & Shengyu Meng, XI Lei & Aven Le Zhou, Wei Xin, Zijie, zzyw
Courtesy of Times Museum.
