Norio Nakamura, Dance of the Earth (2023)

Tokyo-based graphic designer Norio Nakamura interpreted Hyundai Artlab’s transnational ecosystem for his Digital Commission, which we published in September 2023. Working with 3D animator Shibashin, Nakamura brought to life a concept that he first developed nearly two decades ago: a vision of Earth as a unified and cohesive entity, rather than an amalgamation of borders. For his interview with Artlab Editorial, he shared “I hoped to show an attitude where one seeks to communicate with others, even if we live in a world where many different individuals, groups, regions, generations, and cultures exist.”

Aleksandra Jovanić & Ivana Dama, Data Waves (2023)

Until recently, our digital commissions have been with individual artists. In August 2023, for the first time, Artlab brought together two artists with different areas of expertise to collaborate on one original artwork: Belgrade-based artist and programmer Aleksandra Jovanić and Los Angeles-based sound artist and researcher Ivana Dama. By visualizing the unconventional networks and programmatic ideals of Artlab, Jovanić and Dama provide a literal visual and sonic landscape to this otherwise theoretical ecosystem, generating beautiful and unexpected results in the process. “I see this collaboration as a beginning. I'm hoping that we'll have a chance to expand on this idea and other ideas in the future,” Dama shared in her conversation with Jovanić and Artlab Editorial.

Ezra Miller, Puddle 1, Scott Ave (2023)

New York-based artist Ezra Miller is fascinated by how the patterns and structures found in nature also emerge through computational methods, almost subconsciously. “Technology plays an integral role in achieving the transformative effect of art, encouraging us to view our everyday environment with a fresh perspective. By merging the digital and natural worlds, I can create powerful visual experiences that invite viewers to engage with the beauty that surrounds us,” the artist told Artlab Editorial. For his Digital Commission, the artist wove together organic and digital processes, and AI, to transform an everyday experience—walking past a puddle—into a visual artwork that pushes the boundary of reality.

Sougwen Chung, Ligatures 3 (2023)

London-based artist Sougwen Chung explores the intersection of computational processing and human mark-making in their work. For their Digital Commission for Hyundai Artlab, which we published in June 2023, the artist created an artwork in collaboration with AI, forging a new connection between art and emerging technology. In their interview with Artlab Editorial, the artist shared more about her interest in interdisciplinarity. “I’m drawn to hybrid processes in artmaking and in life, so it’s a delight to share this contribution to Artlab’s ecosystem, a place of similar values,” said Chung.

Zach Lieberman, Light study / networks (2023)

Brooklyn-based artist Zach Lieberman leveraged code, text, and visual art to create his Digital Commission, which was published in March 2023 in tandem with our open call for the first Artlab Editorial Fellowship. “When I started this work, I was thinking about how to capture the function, energy, and ethos of Artlab. A decentralized network diagram popped into my head, and I wondered if I could show the movement of color and energy from node to node… Artlab drives culture forward through their Commission series, and connects the dots across networks of artists, writers, and creative practitioners,” he shared in his interview with Artlab Editorial.

Leon Xu, Digital Commission (2023)

New York-based artist Leon Xu created a painting for his Digital Commission, a first for the series, which was animated in collaboration with the Artlab team for its February 2023 debut. Xu is interested in light as something visceral yet intangible, both geographically specific and omnipresent. The commission is based on an image the artist took while traveling in South Korea. “I was heavily drawn to the idea that the medium of light can act as a signifier of geography and climate, which Hyundai Artlab is interested in. How can light itself reflect a place, or even create a portal?” he shares in his interview with Artlab Editorial.

Upa Chen, Digital Commission (2023)

For Hyundai Artlab’s first digital commission of 2023, published in January of the new year, artist Upa Chen captured the ephemerality of memory and seasons. Landscapes and biological cycles are central to Chen’s practice. Taking inspiration from algae that blooms on the surface of Laomei Reef on the northern coast of Taiwan, where Chen is based, the artist used brushwork to evoke a dreamy, mossy quality.

Katja Novitskova, Growth Potential (re-animation) (2022)

Originally from Tallinn, Estonia and currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Katja Novitskova previously studied semiotics and graphic design before becoming an artist. For her Digital Commission, which was published in December 2022, Novitskova considered how the aesthetics of graphic design and economic development reflect, redirect, and reconsider reality. “Stock 3D models of economic growth arrows are simultaneously combinations of a shooting arrow, a mathematical vector, the shape of a snake, and a plant shoot—all merged into 'industrial-grade' digital objects with often glossy surfaces and materiality. This commission was an opportunity to develop my work a bit further by making a dynamic animation instead of a sculpture,” she shared with Artlab Editorial.

Ram Han, Incubator (2022)

In October 2022, we released our first digital commission by Seoul-based artist Ram Han, whose illustrations often possess a dreamlike quality. In describing her Digital Commission to Artlab Editorial, the artist shares: “The surface of the machine that looks like an island is an iteration of our daily life, like grass and the natural world. It is a tool and means of transportation that allows us to escape from our daily life for a while. And it contains ideas, thoughts, and new technologies from writers and the companies that support them.” With this artwork, Han imagines Artlab’s ecosystem and its engagements in the spatial world through her own unique vision of dreams as reality’s crutch.