DT NEWS / APR 29, 2024
Educational for Everybody’: LA Art Show tackles intersection of art, AI
Just saying the words “artificial intelligence” around a group of artists can lead to fist fights, but that hasn’t stopped the organizers of the LA Art Show from tackling the issue head-on in the 29th edition of Los Angeles’ largest and longest-running art show.
From Wednesday, Feb. 14, to Sunday, Feb. 18, the sprawling show will take over the Los Angeles Convention Center. It will feature more than 100 galleries, museums and nonprofits from all around the world, along with the DIVERSEartLA educational component, community initiatives and programming that includes student art contests, an emerging artist contest and a new charity partnership with The American Heart Association’s Life is Why campaign.
DIVERSEartLA is the fair’s signature non-commercial program that connects local and international art institutions to tackle issues important to the world. This year’s program showcases seven solo projects that explore the intersection of memory, humanity and AI.
“The works invite us to consider the opportunities and challenges presented by AI while also raising ethical questions and the social implications of relying on AI as a tool for memory and identity,” said Marisa Caichiolo, DIVERSEartLA’s curator.
Kassandra Voyagis said she and Caichiolo believed AI would be an important topic to tackle this year because it has been so much in the news and has had a profound effect on artists. Voyagis thought it important to explore how museums and artists can use AI to create immersive experiences and to view it as a tool rather than a component that is competing with the art world.
All of the participating institutions in DIVERSEartLA are either using AI to create an immersive component, to show the history of certain pieces or to incorporate it in a discussion about memory.
“It’s a very interesting topic that can start conversations and can open the viewpoint of how AI can be used as a tool in this world,” Voyagis said. “It is very in the now and something that needs to be discussed. We provide this platform for institutions and museums — it’s an educational and cultural component of the show. Museums have the ability to bring a presentation or an exhibit around a topic that can be educational for everybody.”
• The Nevada Museum of Art: Contemporary artist Guillermo Bert’s “The Journey” is an installation of 20 life-sized wood sculptures of actual immigrants employed as frontline workers. It is a multimedia work exploring how ancient traditions and modern technology merge to create narratives of identity, human memory, immigration, culture and humanity.