Robbie Barrat
Robbie Barrat is an artist and graphic designer working with artificial intelligence as a tool and a medium. He graduated high school in Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia in May of 2017. Since then he has worked at NVIDIA on the use of neural networks in self driving cars, at Stanford University in a research lab exploring using machine learning for drug discovery, in New York working as an artist independently, attended art school in Saint Nazaire, France. Most recently he has opened an art/design studio in Paris.
Last update on 10-03-2023
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Featured Artworks
As the title itself indicates, "AI Generated Nude Portrait #5" is part of Robbie Barrat's series of GAN-generated portraits of nude figures and among the first works ever tokenized on SuperRare. According to the artist, what is really fascinating about neural networks is how they can "misinterpret" (or possibly reinterpret?) human inputs as the reference images they are given, leading to unprecedented outcomes for the beholder to get lost into. In this work, if one wishes to delve deeper into the subject, there seems to be a plurality of uncanny figures subtly resonating with a bell-like representation of the Holy Family or the tight embrace Klimt portrayed in The Kiss.
AI Generated Nude Portrait #5
2018
Medium
Dense, almost as material as a tightly knit tapestry, "AI Generated Landscape Painting #4" pertains to Robbie Barrat's most surreal landscapes, created by training a GAN to produce a naturalistic view using thousands of landscape oil paintings as reference. While the initial results of this experiment were mostly realistic, with a neat separation between ground and waterfronts on the bottom, trees in the middle of the image and sky on its top, in later versions the neural network gave darker, increasingly confused outcomes. As in a bird's eye view or a picture made using a macro lens, this work seems to play with light and color as identified in nature by the fresh eye of an Impressionist. Rather than producing a recognizable landscape, the machine arranges these elements in a mechanic, more abstract way instead, almost challenging the viewers to find their own interpretation of it.
AI Generated Landscape Painting #4
2018
Still
The oldest piece on SuperRare, "AI Generated Nude Portrait #1" is part of a groundbreaking series Robbie Barrat produced using neural networks. The artist trained a GAN to portray nude figures using thousands of original nude portraits as a reference; instead of producing a realistic outcome, the machine "incorrectly" interpreted the data set Barrat provided, almost developing its own vision of a human body: a collection of folds and lumps of flesh. In this case, there seems to be a relationship between the eerie subject and the background, the work somewhat holding an echo of Daliesque tumultuous dreams.
AI Generated Nude Portrait #1
2018
Still
In Landscape 7, no shapes bear recognition and only the title hints to the landscape's presence. Against a dark background, vibrant colours of red, pink, green and pearl oscillate. The vibrancy and flow of the lines remind of reflections of lights on the water. Yet such a blurry vision can only push the limits of our imagination. This work tells of Robbie Barrat's use of artificial intelligence as a media. The artist explores the potential for misinterpretations and accidents when working with Generative Adversarial Networks. His practice starts with a representational image that he alters through algorithms until he reaches his signature.
Landscape 7
Unknown
Medium
In Landscape 4, nothing is recognisable. Such a blurry vision can only push the limits of our imagination. Yet the colour palette hints to the depiction of a hillside, with yellow grass and bottle-green bushes. The work presents Robbie Barrat’s use of artificial intelligence as a media. The artist explores the potential for misinterpretations and accidents when working with Generative Adversarial Networks. His practice starts with a representational image that he alters through algorithms until he reaches his signature aesthetic.
Landscape 4
Unknown
Medium
The Foundry
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Art for Space is an online group show curated by Chiara Braidotti and Serena Tabacchi conceived of as a collective experiment to examine the dynamics underpinning the relationship between appreciation and appraisal of art.
The artworks in Art for Space are a collection of the top ten works selected from the categories of success and prestige. The first is a collection of the highest sales made from the opening of the gallery in April 2018 until the 15th September 2019. The second is a selection of works made by the participating curators, chosen from the same range of works available on the platform up until the 15th September 2019.
The artworks here have been paired and marked according to their selection category. The same couples were posted on social media (MoCDA Instagram and Twitter accounts) during the months of February and March 2020. The count of likes and social appreciation have then been collected and compared to the previous selection based on the market value and curatorial selection. The findings of this research have been, in most cases, coherent with the public response from the social networks; the number of likes was often close between the art couples shared. In some cases, the curator’s pick had a higher count compared to the market success selection but, occasionally, the opposite was also true.
“In order to investigate the overlap of the intersection of prestige and success in art, a group of art experts and artists were invited to select a small number of artworks that they deemed valuable. They had to choose among the works on display in the crypto art gallery, SuperRare, in September 2019. Their selection was then matched with indicators of market success for such works. The research found that prestigious artworks selected by art experts and artists are also successful in the gallery marketplace, revealing an interesting link between prestige and success, despite the early stage of the movement.
This is the premise of Art for Space, conceived of as a collective experiment by data scientist, Massimo Franceschet, who invited the MoCDA curatorial team and the SuperRare gallery team and artists to examine the dynamics underpinning the relationship between appreciation and appraisal of art. The current exhibition pairs some of the artworks selected by curators with the most successful ones according to their market value.
“When Massimo told me about his intention to investigate the correspondence between prestige and success of the crypto art present in the SuperRare gallery, I realised how important and disruptive such research could prove to be, given the relatively recent - although very active - community in the crypto art movement.”
(Serena Tabacchi, co-founder of MoCDA)
The research offered an opportunity for the MoCDA curatorial team to challenge their views on crypto art. Regardless of the artworks’ monetary value, curators had to provide Franceschet with a selection of only ten works that they deemed worth saving for future generations. This selection was to be submitted with a statement about why they believed the artworks to be of importance, and such statements are now used as captions for the exhibited works.
The outcome of Franceschet’s research was somewhat surprising: curators tend to identify themselves with the viewers and, in doing so, they anticipate the tastes of the masses whilst also discovering the unique trait of an artist who is more likely to be appreciated by a niche audience. Finding a balance between popularity and artistic talent is something curators are naturally attracted to and can identify before it becomes a widely recognised art phenomenon.
Franceschet’s findings are to be acknowledged as proof of the rapidly-growing crypto art market and as a prefiguration of the weight that curatorial insight can play in this context. With the growing interest of the role of curators in crypto art, their vision can prove to be a significant factor in influencing social engagement and the taste of collectors and art enthusiasts by identifying and supporting talent within the community.
The crypto art movement has its own rules and curators are finding their way to tune in and help the talent spread further. Similarly to Imprint 93 by Matthew Higgs - a pioneering curator who sent out a series of artist’s editions by post in the 1990s - Art for Space research foreshadows the importance of disruptive curatorial insights on the crypto art movement for which art critics and curators are challenged to contribute meaningful values, education, and structure.”
(Chiara Braidotti and Serena Tabacchi, curators)
Participating Curators: Jason R. Bailey, Chiara Braidotti, Eleonora Brizi, Chloe Diamond, Stina Gustafsson, Fanny Lakoubay, Judy Mam, Serena Tabacchi and Tom Van Avermaet.
Participating Artists: artonymousartifakt, Jörn Bielewski (aka shortcut), Ophelia Fu, Hackatao, Bård Ionson, Marko Zubak (aka MLIBTY), XCOPY, Neel Yadav, Zack Yanger.
Exhibiting Artists: Robbie Barrat, Ethan Tyrer, Mattia Cuttini, Adrien Le Falher, hex6c, Rah Crawford, XCOPY, Thato Tatai, 0xbull, Hackatao, Anna Louise Simpson, Ophelia Fu, David Young, Coldie, Stefan Stignei, Bård Ionson.
Special thanks to An Rong and Jonathan Perkins at SuperRare and Martin Lukas Ostachowski