Gazing Machines

Quayola Pleasant Places, Glow Festival Eindhoven
portrait of the artist with red digital background
Quayola Portrait © Skino Ricci
Quayola, Sculpture Factory, Paradise Art Space, Asymmetric-Archaeology, Seoul_South-Korea, 2018-2019
Quayola, Remains, HOW Art Museum, Asymmetric Archaeology, Gazing Machines, Shanghai, 2019

key details

12 December 2022
Online on Zoom / Onsite at ARCHiVe
4pm — 6pm (CET)

about

A lecture by Quayola, artist who employs technology as a lens to explore the tensions and equilibriums between seemingly opposing forces: the real and artificial, figurative and abstract, old and new. Constructing immersive installations, he engages with and re-imagines canonical imagery through contemporary technology. Landscape painting, classical sculpture and iconography are some of the historical aesthetics that serve as a point of departure for Quayola’s hybrid compositions. His varied practice, all deriving from custom computer software, also includes audiovisual performance, immersive video installations, sculpture, and works on paper. His work has been performed and exhibited in many prestigious institutions worldwide including V&A Museum, London; Park Avenue Armory, New York; National Art Center, Tokyo; UCCA, Beijing; How Art Museum, Shanghai; SeMA, Seoul; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Ars Electronica, Linz; Sonar Festival, Barcelona and Sundance Film Festival.

Also a frequent collaborator on musical projects, Quayola has worked with composers, orchestras and musicians including London Contemporary Orchestra, National Orchestra of Bordeaux, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Vanessa Wagner, Jamie XX, Mira Calix, Plaid and Tale Of Us. In 2013, Quayola was awarded the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica.

Lecturer

Davide Quayola

Born in 1982 in Rome, he quickly tried to get away from the Italian capital and its historical iconography, choosing to move to London at the age of 19 to seek new subjects, a new language and a new way of expression. In 2005, he obtained an art degree from the University of London. Through his enigmatic videos, Quayola creates hybrid spaces of animated painting and sculpture. Using a procedure of audio-visual performance, drawing, photography and software programming, he explores a fine line between the real and the artificial.