Invisible Threads:

Technology and its Discontents

Artists: Ai Weiwei, Jamie Allen, Aram Bartholl, Taysir Batniji, Wafaa Bilal, Liu Bolin, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Michael Joaquin Grey, Monira Al Qadiri, Evan Roth, Phillip Stearns, Siebren Versteeg, Addie Wagenknecht, Kenny Wong.

September 22 - January 7, 2017

The NYUAD Art Gallery

Summary

With artworks that use a full range of media from artificial intelligence and “bio-hacking” to radiation and data trackers, as well as sculpture and drawings in traditional media, this exhibition foregrounded the tensions that emerge in our everyday relationships with technology. Invisible Threads presented a nuanced exploration of a global topic, framed by the region’s complex relationship to the benefits and pitfalls that accompany technological advances.

Notably, Invisible Threads inaugurated one of NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery’s unique program strategies: inviting scholars and specialists from across the academic spectrum to guest-curate a major exhibition. Invisible Threads was co-curated by Professor Scott Fitzgerald, who was at the time founding Program Head of Interactive Media at NYU Abu Dhabi. He co-curated with Bana Kattan, then-Curator at the Gallery (now Associate Curator at MCA Chicago).

Co-Curator and faculty Scott Fitzgerald said: “The ways we treat and use technology are central to my practice and teaching. This show is an exciting opportunity for me to work through these ideas in a new context. The artists in the show represent a spectrum of established and emerging talents who offer a broad and critical look at the way we have enshrined these tools in practically every aspect of our lives. Collectively, they help present a past, present, and future of our evolving relationship with technologies.”

About the Curators

Bana Kattan is the Pamela Alper Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. At the time of Invisible Threads she was a curator at the New York University Abu Dhabi Art Gallery and the manager of the NYUAD Project Space. During her graduate work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she worked with the Performance Department at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Curatorial Department of the Guggenheim- Abu Dhabi Project in New York. She was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Scott Fitzgerald is an artist and educator whose work examines the interdependence of culture and technology. He’s a Professor and co-Director of the Integrated Digital Media program at NYU Tandon and a PhD student in the Department of Media Study at University at Buffalo. His research investigates unseen power relations expressed through networked devices. Scott has a Master’s from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program where he studied interactive video art and physical computing. His work has been exhibited and installed around the globe, including a permanent site-specific work at the University of Oslo and temporary public work in New York City’s Times Square. From 2007-2010, Scott was a researcher with the audio art group Locus Sonus, working with sound in built and imagined environments. He regularly runs workshops on using technology in the arts and was the head of documentation for the open source Arduino platform and was founding head of the Interactive Media program at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Read the essay

Excerpt from the Curators’ essay in the brochure:

With the launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957, humanity entered an age of new technological possibility. Sputnik’s orbit around Earth brought the race for technological superiority between the United States and the USSR to the forefront of the world’s consciousness. Posing as a symbol of ideological superiority, this event ushered in a race for greater technological achievements. With each successive advancement, hope and despair rises and recedes depending on how we perceive the appropriate use of these tools.

The Information Age has given us tools of communication unrivaled in history, enabling us to express ourselves over vast distances. It has also opened a Pandora’s Box of unprecedented means of tracking, in an ecosystem of digital and virtual tools. These tools penetrate our daily life in the form of artifacts like mobile phones and computers, as well as systems like those that enable electronic financial transactions. Beautifully designed objects such as smartphones and laptops resist inspection, and are complex beyond the understanding of many of us. This “black box” model obscures the means by which information is handled, and who is using it.

Our reliance on these tools may give rise to an emotional connection between oneself and the object. Regardless of how this relationship comes into being, we ultimately cannot engage in meaningful interaction with these devices and frameworks. When software no longer works as expected, or hardware fails, one cannot have a conversation with these tools. Our notion of control over these objects and systems can be illusory.

Each of the works in Invisible Threads exposes these methods of control in some form; the artists here consider the perspective of the user and the object, but also the systems that arise from our reliance on these technologies. As a group, the works pull back the curtain on a part of our lives that we take for granted. The noble aspirations of digital tools that were essential to the formation of the information age is still very much part of these works. The works also enable us to take a critical look at our relationship with these systems of communication and trust in technology.

With this exhibition, the curators aim to trace a dichotomy and examine the space between the poles of technological advance: noble aspiration versus anxiety. To proactively guide our use of these tools one must acknowledge one’s relationship with them. Through this exhibition, the curators invite visitors to explore the “invisible threads” that bind us to these technologies, and to contemplate the nuanced relationship between man and machine.

Read the full text for the exhibition at this link.

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Ai Weiwei (b. Beijing, China, 1957) is a conceptual artist who positions himself in and out of his Beijing studio as a cultural arbiter.

Compelled by a sense of social conscience, his artistic practice extends across many roles, from filmmaker and photographer, to writer, publisher, curator, and architect.

As an heir to Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, yet digging deep into Chinese heritage, he moves freely between a variety of formal languages, reflecting on contemporary geopolitics. In recycling historical materials, loaded with meaning, such as Han Dynasty vases or wood from destroyed temples, Ai distills ancient and modern aesthetics in works of salvage or iconoclasm. Public commissions, like bringing 1,001 Chinese citizens to the small German town of Kassel for documenta 12 (Fairytale, 2007), or the pouring of hundreds of millions of handmade porcelain seeds into the Tate’s Turbine Hall (Sunflower Seeds, 2010), are audacious gestures that command global attention, but always underlain with humor and compassion.

Ai Weiwei attended the Beijing Film Academy and later, on moving to New York (1981-1993), continued his studies at the Parsons School of Design. His works exhibited in institutions worldwide, including the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where he showed his epic film journey ‘Human Flow’. His works exhibited in major institutions, including Lisson Gallery, London, UK (2019); Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA (2019); Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada (2019); Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); MARCO, Monterrey, MX (2019); OCA, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2018); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2018); Royal Academy, London, UK (2015); Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany (2014); Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, USA (2013); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2012); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2011); Tate Modern, London, UK (2010); and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009). Architectural collaborations include the 2012 Serpentine Pavilion and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, with Herzog and de Meuron.

Jamie Allen (b. Ontario, Canada, 1976) is an artist-researcher, who trained and worked as a polymer chemistry engineer in Cana, the UK, and the U.S.

He lives and worked between Basel and Copenhagen.

His work examines the physical relationships present amongst people afforded by technology, and between people and media. Allen writes and creates art, media, music, and performance and is interested in the way creative uses of technology inform the sense of who we are and how we know. In his 2012 piece, I Love the Internet and the Internet Loves Me, Allen uses a loudspeaker to broadcast his own public-private relationships gleaned from his Facebook feed, out into the “real world.”

He has worked with a host of international art institutions, including Trent University, Peterborough, Canada (2017); Roja Art Lab, Roja, Latvia (2016); Eyebeam.org, Brooklyn, NY (2008); Société des Arts Technologiques, Montreal, Canada; vertexList, Brooklyn, NY; The Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, UK; The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK; and Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany.

He holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought from the European Graduate School and works as Senior Researcher at the Critical Media Lab.

Aram Bartholl (b. Bremen, Germany, 1972) is a Berlin based conceptual artist.

He graduated from Berlin University of the Arts with an Engineering degree in Architecture. His graduate thesis Bits on Location won the 2001 Browserday competition.

Bartholl focuses his work on the interplay between internet, culture, and reality. His public interventions and installations straddle the digital world and everyday life. As with his seminal work, Dead Drops (2010), an interactive piece in which the audience-use is invited to access or exchange private data via USB drive, which is physically embedded in a public and freely accessible building or structure. Bartholl has had solo shows in Roehrs & Boetsch, Zürich, Switzerland (2019); SMAC, Berlin (2019); Emmanuel Gallery, Denver, Colorado (2018); La Chaufferie, H.E.A.R., Strasbourg, France (2018); Import Projects, Berlin (2018); LWL, Münster, Germany (2017); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2015); Babycastles, New York, NY (2015); DAM Gallery, Berlin (2014, 2012); Kasseler Kunstverein Museen, Kassel, Germany (2013); Xpo Gallery, Paris (2013); and Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

In collaboration, Bartholl has exhibited at Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Pace Gallery, New York and Hayward Gallery, London.

Taysir Batniji (b. Gaza, Palestine, 1996) studied art at Al-Najah University in Nablus.

He received a DNSEP (Higher National Diploma in Plastic Expression) from Ecole des Beaux-Ars, Bourges, France, a Graduate Degree in Fine Arts from University Paris 8, and engaged in post-degree study at the National Fine Arts School of Marseille.   

His practice encompasses photographer, video, sculptural installations, and performance works. In his work, Taysir reflects on “Palestinianness,” in particular, its relationship to time, incorporating themes of displacement, disappearance, and illusion.

  Batniji’s artworks are regularly exhibited internationally. His latest solo exhibitions took place in MAC VAL Museum, Vitry-sur-Seine, France (2020); Art Jameel, Dubai, UAE (2020); Galerie Éric Dupont, Paris, France (2020); L’lmagerie, Lannion, France (2019); Mina Image Center, Beirut, Lebanon (2019); Prefix Institut of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada (2019); Sfeir Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany (2019); Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France (2018); and Aperture Foundation, New York (2018); Espace d’Art Contemporain André Malraux, Colmar, France (2016); Sfeir Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon (2014-2015); and Salon de Provence, France (2013).

  He participated in numerous international group exhibitions, including the Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2020); Jeu de Paume, Paris, France (2020); Villa Empain / Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium (2019); 12th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2011); 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2011).

  Taysir Batniji currently divides his time between Palestine and France.

Wafaa Bilal (b. Kufa, Iraq, 1966) is an Iraqi-American artist and an Associate Arts Professor at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU in New York City.

He holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico and received his MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Bilal’s work is informed by “simultaneously existing in two worlds: his home in the ‘comfort zone’ of the U.S. and his consciousness of the ‘conflict zone’ in Iraq.”

His installations are performative and interactive, often using his own body as his medium, and aim to provoke dialogue about international politics as well as internal dynamics. In his performance piece Domestic Tension (2007), he invited internet patrons to shoot at him with a remote-controlled paintball gun during a month-long stay at the FlatFile Galleries in Chicago.

Bilal has had solo shows at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (2018), the Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, MI (2017); Dunlop Art Gallery, Central Gallery, Regina Public Library, Canada (2017); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2016); The Esker Foundation, Canada (2016); the Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Canada (2016); Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York (2014); Linfield Gallery, Oregon (2014); Doris McGarthy Gallery, Toronto (2013); David Winton Bell Gallery, Rhode Island, US (2013); Maraya Art Park, Sharjah, UAE (2013; and Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2012).

Bilal was named 2008’s Artist of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, and his recent work, Canto III, was premiered in a solo booth at the New York Armory Show and subsequently exhibited in the 2015 Venice Biennale. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL; and MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha Qatar; amongst others.

Liu Bolin (b. Shandong, China, 1973), is a Beijing-based artist and photographer.

He attended the Shandong Academy of Fine Arts earning his degree in 1995 and later studied sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he received his MFA.

Liu has been called “The Invisible Man,” a reference to his “camouflage” installations in which he immerses himself. His work examined the tense relationship between the individual and his society. The environments in his country into which he “disappears” are fraught with contention, and his work represents a convergence of performance, photography, and social activism. As with his Hiding in the City series (2005-2013), Bolin’s “invisibility” serves to focus attention on a subject and thus become a form of silent protest.

Liu’s solo exhibitions include the Bocconi Art Gallery, Milan, Italy (2019); Art gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (2019); Museo delle Culture (Mudec), Milan, Italy (2019); Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2019); The Gaviria Palace, Madrid, Spain (2019); Riverside Art Museum, Beijing (2019); Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland, Almere, The Netherlands (2019); Erarta Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2018); Complesso Del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy (2018); Le DIDAM, Bayonne, France (2018); Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2017); Centre Pompidou, Galerie des Enfants, Paris (2017); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Ramacca, Catania, Italy (2017); Danysz Gallery, Shanghai (2017); Klein Sun Gallery, New York (2016); Handrien De Montferrand Gallery, Hangzhou, China (2016); Dennos Museum, Traverse City, MI (2015); Cyrus M. Running Gallery, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN (2015); Fondation d’Entreprise Espace Écureuil Pour l’Art Contemporain, France; Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT (2013); Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China (2013); Museo H.C. Andersen, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy (2012); Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow, Russia (2012); Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2011); Forma Centro Internazionale DI Fotografia, Milano, Italy (2010); and Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela (2010).

Jonah Brucker-Cohen (b. Washington D.C., 1975) is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Networked Culture at Lehman College/CUNY in New York City.

He received his Masters from ITP, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and his Ph.D. in the Disruptive Design Team of the Networking and Telecommunications Research Group (NTRG), Trinity College Dublin. 

In his work, Brucker-Cohen challenges people’s assumptions of what they perceive or take for granted, specifically examining the mass usage of computers and networks. He interrogates how networks integrate into existing architecture and social patterns outside of traditional computer interfaces, through bringing together people that might not have connected in a physical space.

His work has been exhibited at events and organizations including SODA Festival, Saarbrucken, Germany (2020); CUNY & NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY (2019); International House, NYC (2019); New York University, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York (2019); New York Institute of Technology, New York (2019); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2018-2019); The New School University Center, New York, NY (2018); Parsons School of Design, New York (2017); Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada (2014); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California (2009); MOMA, New York, NY (2008); Chelsea Art Museum, NY, NY (2007); ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2005); Art Futura, Barcelona, Spain (2004); Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK (2004); DEAF, Dublin, Ireland (2003); Whitney Museum of American Art’s ArtPort, NYC, NY (2003); and Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (2002).

Brucker-Cohen is the Executive Vice President of Lively Event, Inc. that focuses on creating engaging displays for public interaction through mobile devices. He is also the co-founder of the Dublin Art and Technology Association, and a recipient of the ARANEUM Prize sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Art, Science and Technology and Fundacion ARCO. In 2006 and 2008 he was a nominee for the Rockefeller Foundation New Media Fellow, and served as the Art Gallery chair for the SIGGRAPH 2016 Art Gallery in Anaheim, California.

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (b. Philadelphia, PA, 1982) is a trans-disciplinary artist and educator.

She holds a B.A. in Information Arts from Bennington College and a Master of Professional Studies degree from ITP, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She earned her PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Currently, she is Visiting Assistant Professor of Interactive Media at NYU Abu Dhabi. 

Dewey-Hagborg works with dual strands of art and science to focus our attention on conceptions of the natural and the artificial. Drawing from diverse fields including biology, computation, sculpture, and critical design, she engages in art as practice-based research exploring the hidden structures of media, technology, and science that frame our cultural imagination. 
Her controversial work Stranger Visions (2012–2014) uses left behind, anonymous DNA as a starting point for the creation of lifelike, computer generated 3-D portraits, based on the captured samples.

Hagborg has exhibited internationally at: Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea (2018); Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen, Norway (2018); MU Art Space, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2018); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2018); Kanal – Centre Pompidou, Brussels, and Almere, Netherlands (2018-2019); The Cooper Union, New York, NY (2018); Wei-Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (2018); the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland (2015); Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, Shenzhen, China (2015); Article Biennial, Stavanger, Norway (2015); Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (2015); Transmediale, HKW, Berlin (2015); Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (2014-2017); Science Gallery, Dublin (2013); Poland Mediations Biennial, Poznan, Poland (2012); Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York, NY (2012); MOMA PS1, Queens, NY (2011); and The New Museum, New York (2011).

Michael Joaquin Grey (b. Los Angeles, CA, 1961), is an artist, educator and toy inventor living and working in San Francisco.

He holds a BS in Genetics and a BA in Practice of Art from Berkeley, with an MFA in Sculpture from Yale.

Grey’s work centers on materializing complex natural phenomena and culture and the study of the intermediate states of change in behavior, matter, meaning and the pattern of their consequences. Grey is the creator of Zoob, a pedagogical “building-block” children’s toy which models the anatomy and chemistry of the human body.

Michael Joaquin Grey has exhibited internationally, including MoMA, New York (2012); Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, USA (2010); Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany (2011); MoMA PS1, New York, NY (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL (2004); Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2001); Norrtalje Konsthall, Sweden (2000); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (1995); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA (1994); Nordic Art Centre, Helsinki, Finland (1994); Kunstverein Hanover, Hanover, Germany (1994); Serpentine Gallery, London (1994); Brooke Alexander Editions, New York (1993); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1993); The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (1993); Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York (1992); Lisson Gallery, London, UK (1992); and Stuart Regan Gallery, Los Angeles (1992).

Grey has work in collections in MoMA, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Centro Cultural d’Arte Contemporeano; and the New Art Trust.

Monira Al Qadiri (b. Dakar, Senegal, 1983) is a Kuwaiti visual artist born in Senegal and educated in Japan.

She received her Ph.D. in inter-media art from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2010. 

Through the use of self-portraiture and symbols of masculinity, Al Qadiri explores the psychological tension of being female in a male-dominated society. Another recurring motif in her practice is the dissolution of cultural or religious identity. Incorporating folkloric and historical references in her work, she reflects on the slow disappearance of a shared culture.

Al Qadiri’s solo exhibitions include shows at Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2020); the Circl, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2018); Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon (2017); Gasworks, London, UK (2017); Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands (2017); Acud Macht Neu, Berlin, Germany (2017); ATHR Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2017); the Sultan Gallery, Kuwait (2014); and Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo, Japan (2009).

She has participated in collective international exhibitions in CCA, Warsaw, Poland (2015); Kunstverein Dusseldorf, Germany (2015); Maraya Arts Center, Sharjah, UAE (2015); Hong-Gah Museum, Taiwan (2014); Edge of Arabia Projects, London, UK (2014); Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon (2013); Home Works 6, Beirut, Lebanon (2013); Watermill Center, New York, USA (2010); Sultan Gallery, Kuwait (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2008); and Moscow Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russa (2008).

Al Qadiri is a founding member of the artist collective GCC.

Evan Roth (b. Okemos, MI, 1978) is an American artist based in Paris.

He received a degree in architecture from University of Maryland and received his MFA from the Communication, Design and Technology program at Parsons The New School for Design. 

In his practice, in which he applies a hacker philosophy, Roth explores the relationship between misuse and empowerment by visualizing and archiving popular culture through the unintended uses of its technologies. These are the basis of his piece Internet Landscapes (2016) in which he employs technology used by paranormal investigators – full spectrum photography, infrared video, and devices used to record electronic voice phenomena (EVP) – to document and present on-line, the mostly unseen infrastructure of the internet, such as underwater fiber-optic cables as they carry data. He invites the user to simultaneously view the physical internet cable and contribute to the data flowing through it.

Roth’s works appeared in recent exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida (2019); the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK (2019); THE Artangel, London, UK (2018); The Belenius, Stockholm, Sweden (2016). Other major exhibitions include the Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2016); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2015).

Roth is the co-founder of Graffiti Research Lab and the Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab.

Phillip Stearns (b. Austin, TX, 1982) works with electronics and electronic media art in Brooklyn, New York.

He received his B.S. in Music Technology from the University of Colorado at Denver, and his MFA in Music Composition and Integrated Media from the California Institute of Arts (CalArts) in 2007. 

In his practice of deconstruction, reconfiguration and extension are key methodologies and techniques in the production of audio-visual performances, electronic sculptures, light and sound installations, digital textiles, and other oddities both digital and material. His project Year of the Glitch (2012), was a yearlong glitch-a-day project exploring various manifestations of glitches (intentional and unintentional / staged and found) produced by digital/ electronic systems. Related, Glitch Textiles, is a project which explores the intersection of digital art and textile design. 

His work has been exhibited internationally at electronics art festivals, museums, and galleries including: BRAHMAN-AI, Bombay Beach, CA (2020); Centre National du Graphisme, Choumont, FR (2019); Prime Produce, New York, NY (2019); NYC Resistor, Brooklyn, NY (2019); ON CANAL, Wallplay, 325 Canal St, NY (2019); Foreman Art Gallery, Sherbooke, QB, CAN (2019); WallPlay, 319 Canal St, NY (2019); Ravisus Textor, Nevers, France (2019); Espace [IM] Media, Sporobole, Sherbrooke, QB, CAN (2019); Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY (2018); CEMENT FONDU Gallery, Paddington NSW, Australia (2018); Stifel Art Center, Wheeling, WV (2018); Knockdown Center, Maspeth, NY (2018); Thoma Foundation, Santa Fe, NM (2018-2019); Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival, Lafayette, CO (2018); A R E A Gallery, Boston, MA (2018); Turku Biennial, Turku, Finland (2013); WRO Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland (2013); Transmediale, HKW, Berlin, Germany (2013); Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (2013); The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK (2012); Camera Club of New York, New York, NY (2012); Eyebeam, New York, NY (2012); Gli.tc/h, Chicago, IL, and Amsterdam, NL (2011); Festival De Arte Digital, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2010); Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2008); and Optica Festival, Gijon & Madrid, Spain (2008).

Stearns has participated in residencies at the at the Making Lab of the 4th APAP in Korea; Textielmuseum in Tilburg, Netherlands; Institute for Electronic Arts; Museums Quartier; STEIM, Amsterdam; Harvestworks, New York; and Free103Point9.

Siebren Versteeg (b. New Haven, CT, 1971) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

He received a BFA from the School the Art Institute of Chicago and received his MFA from the University of Illinois, Chicago. 

Versteeg employs algorithmic programs to access, extract and distill from a vast library of online imagery, which he presents in galleries as painterly abstractions on canvas or digital displays. Arriving at the intersection of the digital world and art history, his work addresses the ideas and perceptions of agency, choice and chance. This can be seen in New York Window (2008) in which Versteeg employs “computerized painting actions,” a reference to Action Painting, a term synonymous with Abstract Expressionism and the New York School. 

Solo exhibitions of his work include the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS (2004); the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2004); the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (2010); the Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA (2009); Bellwether Gallery, New York, NY (2006); Ten in One Gallery, New York, NY (2003); Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL (2003); and 1R Gallery, Chicago, IL (2002). His work appeared in exhibitions including the Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, CA (2020); Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2020); Liberal Arts Roxbury, Roxbury, NY (2020); Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA (2020); Andrew Rafacz, Chicago, IL (2020); University of Georgia, Athens (2019); Hesse Flatow (2019); Primary, Miami, FL (2019); Jack Hanley Gallery, NY (2019); and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago IL (2019).  

Versteeg was the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council, Fellowship, and a Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Merit Fellowship.

Addie Wagenknecht (b. Portland, OR 1981) is an American artist living and working in Innsbruck, Austria.

She holds a B.S. in Multimedia and Computer Science from University of Oregon, and a Masters from ITP, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. 

Wagenknecht’s work explores the tension between expression and technology. Blending conceptually-driven painting, sculpture, and installation with the ethos of hacker culture, Wagenknecht constructs spaces between art object and lived experience.

A member of Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab, Wagenknecht was the recipient of a 2014 Warhol Foundation Grant, which she used to found Deep Lab, a collaborative group of researchers, artists, writers, engineers, and cultural producers interested in privacy, surveillance, code, art, social hacking, and anonymity. As an active leader in the open source hardware movement, she also co-founded NORTD Labs, an international research and development collaborative with Stefan Hechenberger, which produces open source projects that have been used and built by millions worldwide. 

Wagenknecht’s work has been exhibited internationally, including the Somerset House, London, UK (2020, 2019); Museum of Moving Image, New York, NY (2020); DAM Gallery, Berlin, DE (2020); CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (2020, 2019); Bitforms Gallery, NY (2019); Abertay University, Dundee, Scotland (2019); Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, Austria (2019); KINDL Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2019); Watermans Art Center in London, London, England (2019); Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna, Austria (2019); Bitforms LA, LA, CA (2019); Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2019); Nome Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2019); Alte Fabrik Rapperswil, Rapperswil, Switzerland (2019); NEMO Biennale, Region of Île-de-France (2019); Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2016); MU, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2016); LEAP, Berlin, Germany (2014); Phillips, New York, NY (2013); Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2013); and many festivals.

Wagenknecht’s past residencies have included Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, New York; Culture Lab at Newcastle University, UK; Hyperwerk Institute for PostIndustrial Design, Switzerland; and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. Wagenknecht is presently chair of the MIT Open Hardware Summit. 

Kenny Wong (b. Hong Kong, 1987) received his B.A. from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2011.

He pursued his MFA in Sculpture at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and was a part-time Lecturer at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2015.

Wong uses visual patterns, motions, sound textures and computational kinetic sculptures to illuminate the delicate relationship between daily experiences and perceptual stimulations. In his dual kinetic light installations displace pivot_ (2014), the devices appear as flat digital screens from afar, but the actual physical layers within are revealed upon closer viewing. Visual and kinesthetic information is modulated, using electronics and mechanics, disrupting our perception of an absolute visual point of reference or orientation. 
His solo and collaborative works have been exhibited internationally at Goethe-Gallery, Goethe-Institut, Hong Kong (2018); Art Cologne 2017, Pearl Lam Galleries, Germany (2017); Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, Leicester, UK (2016); WRO Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland (2015); LOOP Barcelona, Spain (2015); 404 Festival, Rosario, Argentina, (2015); Ars Electronica Festival, Austria (2014); Athens Video Art Festival, Athens, Greece (2014); FILE Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2014); ISEA Dubai, UAE (2014); Seoul International New Media Festival, Korea (2011); and several important exhibitions in Hong Kong.

Most recently, Wong was selected as a participant in the 2016 ISEA exhibition in Hong Kong and AUTOMATA 2016, the International Digital Arts Biennial in Montreal, Canada.

Wong is currently an independent artist and designer, and has worked as Creative Technologist at IOIO Creative in Hong Kong. Wong actively collaborates as a multimedia designer, mechanical engineer/designer and art researcher.

May 18, 2020 -

Join us for virtual reunions with artists, curators, and collaborators from the last 6 years of exhibitions. Each reunion will coincide with the launch of that exhibition's archive online.

August 15-September 17, 2024

Artist Susan Doe unveils a series of paintings, sculptures, and installations through which she explores ideas of intersectionality, rooted in her own bicultural upbringing.

The Art Gallery at New York University Abu Dhabi (The NYUAD Art Gallery)

Invisible Threads:

Technology and its Discontents

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Ai Weiwei

Jamie Allen

Aram Bartholl

Taysir Batniji

Wafaa Bilal

Liu Bolin

Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Heather Dewey-Hagborg

Michael Joaquin Grey

Monira Al Qadiri

Evan Roth

Phillip Stearns

Siebren Versteeg

Addie Wagenknecht

Kenny Wong

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Susan Doe Entwined