Chitchat with a Creator: Anne Spalter
Meet Anne Spalter: A mixed media digital artist exploring the current and future modern landscape. Happy apocalypse :-)
Anne Spalter is a pioneering digital artist, celebrated for her multidisciplinary exploration of modern landscapes. She delves into natural and man-made vistas, contemplating societal responses to shifts and transformation. A leading advocate for digital art education, Anne established pioneering courses and authored a widely-used textbook. Alongside Michael Spalter, she stewards Spalter Digital, a notable private collection of early computer art. Anne's recent achievements include participation in the MASS MoCA alumni residency, recognition as a top crypto artist, and exhibitions at prestigious venues. Her NFTs have made waves at Sotheby's and Phillips, solidifying her impact on the ever-evolving digital art market.
ANNE SPALTER: ART FOX. VALUE SYNTHESIS AND AI
7-29 NOVEMBER 2023, at EXPANDED.ART, Berlin
Could you tell us about your art?
As a mixed media digital artist, I explore the modern landscape, creating post-apocalyptic worlds that are often playful takes on supposedly doomed scenarios weaving science fiction with deep-seated Jungian symbols of the collective unconscious, such as Water, Signaling Devices, and Journeys. I forge a tapestry of resilience, hope, and transformation. My works challenge the traditional bleakness associated with the post-apocalyptic genre, offering instead an invigorating, vibrant, and ultimately hopeful interpretation of our collective future. Happy apocalypse.
This past year I was part of MASS MoCA's alumni residency; named as one of the 50 most important crypto artists by Rizzoli; participated in the SPRING/BREAK Art Show NYC and the CADAF Art Fair (Nov 11-13);Â and released RABBIT TAKEOVER, an NFT project that sold out in under five minutes. My NFT video piece The Bell Machine was acquired by the Buffalo AKG Museum in December 2022.
My artworks can be found in many private collections and museums such as The Victoria and Albert, The AKG Buffalo Art Museum, The RISD Museum, and The Museum of CryptoArt, Flamingo DAO, the Thoma Collection, and the Progressive Collection. My NFTs have been sold at auction through Sotheby's and Phillips and featured in the New York Times.Â
Your first solo exhibition, 'Art Fox,' is set to take place in Berlin this month. Could you share some insights about what it entails?
I am here now in Berlin–installation is tomorrow and the show opens on Tuesday! Art Fox is a show of oil paintings, charcoal drawings, and 3D-printed sculptures, as well NFTs, all based on AI compositions using text-to-image AI platforms. The theme is how one creates value, whether in the art world or other realms, from diamond mining to social media, and what price people will pay to acquire objects of value, both literally and in terms of personal sacrifice and impact on larger issues such as climate change. The Art Fox is an avatar I created to explore this theme and it is depicted extracting rare earth minerals and gems, playing video games, emerging from spaceships, and in a host of other situations reflecting value creation and the role of creativity.Â
How does the integration of AI play a role in your exhibition and your artistic process?
AI naturally brings up many issues of value. Is an artist using a textual prompt to create an image based on millions of other images really creating original work? What if other artists' names are used in the text prompts? Should the AI platform(s) be given some kind of credit for the final productions? My process involved multiple AI platforms and usually a lot of work by hand as well, but what if an image is simply the result of one text prompt in one system–is there a value difference between those two things? I took the digital compositions and created time-based NFTs and analog-media works based on them–how does that change the artwork's value, having say, an oil painting vs a digital file? I hope the Art Fox will encourage discussion of these timely topics.
After visitors experience 'Art Fox,' what are the key takeaways or impressions that you hope they will carry with them?
As an artist first and foremost I hope that visitors to the show find the works aesthetically appealing and can engage with them like any other art works, whether analog or digital. After finding the works compelling, I hope they begin to wonder about the surreal compositions and find them a good jumping off place for discussing the role of AI in creativity and value creation.
We're aware that you are also a notable computer art collector, could you provide some insights into the collection you've amassed?
As co-founder and co-steward of the Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection (aka Spalter Digital), I work to support and evangelize early pioneers of computer art. Our collection comprises over 1000 works from the second half of the twentieth century. Spalter Digital focuses on plotter drawings but includes other 2D media as well as sculpture and 16mm film. The collection is home to major and iconic examples from key artists in the field.
Spalter Digital has loaned work to the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (California), the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice), the Daelim Museum (Seoul), and others.
Works are viewable online at Spalter Digital.
Is there a piece in your collection that is very special to you? Â
1111 by Kevin Abosch is special to me because I was trying to buy a piece of his work when I first started collecting NFTs and mistakenly bought a fake one. I wrote to Kevin to let him know fake pieces were circulating and he extremely kindly sent me a legitimate version. So this represents both the worst and best of the Web3 space in action.Â
Name three artists that you admire in the space.
X-Copy, Matt Kane, and Pindar van Arman. All for jumping in and experimenting and the latter two for also really exploring uses of the blockchain in the creative process.
Any tips for people who are new to the crypto space?
Crypto is initially confusing but it will all start to make sense after a while. Start slowly and don't spend any funds you can't afford to lose.
One sentence to describe the web3 spirit, what would you say?
Independent thinkers unite around a new technology for sharing art and ideas.Â
In addition to crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?
I enjoy many kinds of music, including electronic music for which I even travel to see shows, from OGs in the field like Kraftwerk to up-and-comers like Ben Bohmer. Secondly, I recently wrote a children's book called There's a Rabbit in my Room! You can purchase it on Amazon in paperback or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited.
What are the best ways to get onboard to web3?
Aside from the logistical part of setting up a Coinbase account and Metamask and/or Temple wallet and finding art you love, the key thing is getting on Twitter and engaging with the "crypto Twitter" community there. This is frustrating for artists who have a large presence already on Instagram but has to be done.Â
BTW, I wrote up a quick How-To for the logistical parts a while ago – I think still pretty much the same.
*Follow Anne Spalter on Twitter and Instagram.
