Arik Veissman: Penance

Guelman unt Unbekannt, the world's first art gallery showcasing art created with the help of Artificial Intelligence, has opened in Berlin today. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Penance," features pieces created by Ukrainian-German artist Arik Weissman and explores a new iconography inspired by Psalm 50 from the Bible.

Renowned art historian Mark Gisbourne commented on the controversial subject matter, stating that the pieces use an algorithm to reimagine data as a new source of visual information and machine-created knowledge. The works prominently feature shades of red, yellow, and gold, symbolizing a penitential petition to the Holy Spirit or Comforter. 

“The subject contents of the series of the images realized through the use of the psalm algorithm presupposes of world of given data re-imagined as a new visual information source and potentially thereafter a unique form of machine created knowledge. An obvious aspect of these painted images is a predominant definition of colour with red-yellow-gold used throughout. This stands for a seemingly indirect penitential petition of address to the living Paraclete (Holy Spirit or Comforter) through the red uses of the liturgical raiment usually associated with Pentecost. In this respect colour represents a feeling of inferred poetic similitude, that is to say distinct from the at times figurative-abstract contents that appear across the various tableau,” says Gisbourne. 

This groundbreaking exhibition invites visitors to experience the intersection of art and technology and explore the possibilities of a new era in artistic expression.

The gallery is the brainchild of Marat Guelman, a leading art curator and dealer who previously spearheaded the cultural revolution in Perm and introduced Russian, Ukrainian, and Kazakh artists to the international art scene. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Guelman relocated to Berlin to open the first-ever gallery that showcases art created with a use of AI, providing a platform for artists exploring the intersection of technology and creativity.

Marat Guelman: “We envision our space as a crucial player in the current revolutionary period in art. As the age-old rift between physicists and poets, humanists and technologists dissolves, we aim to integrate digital art into the broader artistic contex… Only yesterday, rejected digital artists created their own infrastructure in the digital underground. They were rejected not because of the quality of their work, but simply because there was no such concept as an original or a copy. Our gallery will aim to help both artists and collectors to develop the framework that includes everything from legal aspects to the new rules of art criticism”.