It's already an excellent bullsh*t generator.
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Hi, Art!

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Hi, art lovers!

 
Photo of the stage at the 65th GRAMMY Awards. The backdrop is an illuminated screen showing a swirling pattern of digital art in shades of red and magenta. Two giant screens showing a picture of a shirtless Harry Styles, a white male pop star, flank a centre screen which is round and reads

AI data paintings by Refik Anadol appear on screen at the 65th Grammy Awards. They're the swirling red and magenta patterns, not the photos of Harry Styles. The pop star is very much real and not the product of a generative AI model. I met him once. He was nice. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for the Recording Academy)

 
In case you missed it, Thursday’s episode of Q with Tom Power featured a conversation with Hannah Epstein, a Nova Scotia artist we’ve featured on CBC Arts before, albeit for way different projects than the one she discussed on the show. Best known for making smart (and hilarious) textile art about digital/pop culture, Hannah was on Q to talk about a project called Critbot, which is basically an AI-powered Jerry Saltz, capable of analyzing artwork with the push of an upload button. (Try it for yourself. The results are shared on Instagram.)

Since humankind first prompted a text-to-image generator to make a picture of Shrek eating pizza with Spider-Man, the dizzying question of AI’s impact on the arts remains. Much of the present chaos seems to surround image generators and how the companies that built them have scraped the work of real live artists, without credit or compensation, to collect the data an AI model requires to do its many-fingered magic. (Some artists have taken legal action, and more recently, one of the world’s biggest commercial photo agencies, Getty Images, filed a lawsuit against Stabilty AI, creator of Stable Diffusion.) But as Critbot might serve to remind you, the puzzle of how AI is changing the way we think about art goes way beyond who gets credit for images that share an uncanny similarity to ‘70s prog rock album art. There is a staggering number of AI tools already available: applications for art, photo editing, fashion … dating apps. Can AI dish out credible criticism (per Critbot)? Can AI curate better than a human? It’s already being used to generate awards-show sets and background art for Netflix animated series. For now, at least, I agree with this analysis: AI is “a bullshit generator, but it can still be amazingly useful.” (Here, for example, are three ways you can use it to boost creativity.) 
 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Painting by Peter Doig. Depicts a man with round glasses with orange skis strapped to his back. The man wears a jumpsuit in a multicoloured diamond pattern and clims up a snowy mountain. Another snowy peak is seen in the distance behind him.

Peter Doig

If this Peter Doig painting reminds you of Harry Styles’s clowncore moment at the Grammys, Doig himself would agree with you.
 
Photo of two illuminated abstract sculptures in a large concrete-walled gallery space. Two figures appear in silhouette in the distance.

Vladimir Kanic

Those sculptures? They’re made with live algae, and in a single day they can supposedly produce as much oxygen as a small forest. The artist is Vladimir Kanic, and if you want to see his latest exhibition in person (and maybe breathe on it too), you can find it at InterAccess in Toronto through Feb. 18.
 
Painting of architectural curves, perhaps of a mall ceiling, rendered in shades of blue and violet.

Revill Villanueva

Mall art that isn’t a Magic Eye poster! Halos of Scarborough Town Centre by Revill Villanueva. Revill’s part of a two-person show at York University’s Gales Gallery. (Imagined Worlds, on to Feb. 17.)
 
Photo of a man in a grey sweatshirt and backwards navy blue cap painting an enormous canvas that fills the frame of the photo. Painted in a realistic style, the picture resembles an ornate rug, populated with icons that are realistic representations of toy action figures. All the toys are of pop culture aliens: Yoda, Marvin the Martian, Superman, Ultraman, Optimus Prime, Alf and more.

Robert Xavier Burden

Way, way back in 2016, we interviewed Robert Xavier Burden about his monumental paintings of retro toys and action figures. The Canadian-born artist is still as dedicated to that practice as ever, and his latest work-in-progress is The Alien Painting, a piece he’ll be working on live as part of his upcoming solo exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art in California (Feb. 18 to June 4).
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Still from CBC series Best in Miniature. Contestant Susete Saraiva, a woman with dark wavy hair wearing a black apron with her name on it, appears in profile. She seems to be constructing a dollhouse out of brown board.
CBC

4 signs you’re ready to turn your hobby into a full-time hustle

 
Wish you were creating, not stuck at the office? These stars of Best in Miniature know the feeling, but they’ve found a way to make a living off their favourite pastime. Here’s how they knew it was time to make the leap.
 
Holding my Grandmother's Oranges
Aaron Jones/Art Gallery of Ontario

Expand your definition of photography

 
A new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario considers the art form in the broadest possible terms.
 
Medium closeup of filmmaker Antoine Bourges, a man of colour with short dark hair and a moustache wearing an army green shirt. He is photographed against a dappled grey backdrop. Text reads:

Samuel Engelking/CBC Arts

 

Antoine Bourges captures the rhythms of real life on screen

 
The filmmaker is this month’s Rising Star. His latest film, Concrete Valley, blends documentary and fiction.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Michelle Bui

@bui.michelle
Still life photo against a vibrant red backdrop. A wild rose on a long stem stretches up and slightly to the left, curving into a curtain of glistening putty pink entrails.

Michelle Bui

Michelle’s work is as gorgeous as it is unsettling, and this image from 2017 (Pretty in Pink) is a damned good illustration of that fact, I think. We ran a profile of the Montreal-based artist last week. Find it here.
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
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