Artificial intelligence touches the art world in three places: creation, expertise and sales. Each deserves to be looked at without fascination or panic.
In creation
Some artists have made algorithms their material. Refik Anadol turns vast datasets into immersive installations; in 2018 the collective Obvious brought an AI-generated portrait, Edmond de Belamy, into a Christie’s sale. These works raise a real question — who is the author when the machine produces the image? — and have found their collectors, their institutional exhibitions and their critics. For many painters and sculptors, AI remains a tool for research, sketching or documentation, much as photography was before it.
In expertise and sales
This is where the effect is most concrete. Image analysis helps detect forgeries or compare works; sales databases make prices more legible; online platforms recommend works the way they recommend books. The market gains in transparency and speed, and collectors benefit.
What does not change
A canvas by Gregory Thielker painted in oil over weeks, a surface by Spyk built up with spray paint, a resin by Guillaume Grando poured onto wood: studio time, the hand and the material cannot be delegated. Nor can the encounter with the work — a screen conveys neither scale, nor the depth of a black, nor the relief of a brushstroke. That is precisely a gallery’s role: to show works in person, tell the artists’ stories and accompany a choice over time.
Galerie Diego Escobar welcomes you in Marseille, by appointment, to discover the work of its artists.