A pioneer in the field of neural networks, computer learning and AI art, Mario Klingemann uses emerging technologies to explore portraiture, figuration and language. His installations and interactive artworks are developed using generative adversarial networks (GANs) trained on data sets ranging from online porn to old master portraits, electron microscopes or self-help quotes. Once set up, these machine models can generate new images autonomously, producing what is now referred to as AI art.

A significant part of Klingemann’s research centres on digital cultural archives; he has worked with institutions including The British Library, Cardiff University and New York Public Library, has been Artist in Residence at Google Arts and Culture, and received the British Library Labs Artistic Award 2016.

In his artistic practice, Klingemann has worked with figurative visual input to produce disquieting portraits such as The Butcher’s Son, winner of the Lumen Prize Gold Award 2018. His installation, Memories of Passersby I, made history in March 2019 as the first autonomous AI machine to be successfully auctioned at Sotheby’s, and his creations have been exhibited across the globe, including at prestigious venues such as MoMA, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg..