This groundbreaking Virtual Reality art exhibition encompassing the intersection of creativity and technology took place on Culture Night 2024, 20th of September at the People’s Museum, Limerick City. The exhibit showcased the work of award winning Irish artist Gerry Davis through a series of paintings of the artist's work which were inspired by Artificial Intelligence AI image generation.

 

The exhibition emanated the artist’s experimentation with AI Image Generation which was reflected in his series of paintings.  Resonating the Irish landscape, plein eir painting and mythical tones, Davis’s curiosity in Artificial Intelligence image making occurred a few years ago when he was keen to learn about the debate between what is genuine and what is not, in all elements of a studio practice.  Questioning: to what extent can society advance to make things easier?  Will there be a crossroads where, through lack of effort, satisfaction declines?

As Davis became more familiar with the results of AI image generation and the speed at which the finished products were presented, the technology grew less desirable to him and reaffirmed his initial question of authentic versus spurious, and the satisfaction gained from everyday painting compared to the imagery produced from Generative AI models.

Gerry Davis is a graduate of Limerick School of Art & Design, Technological University of the Shannon: Midwest (TUS).  His accolades include the National Gallery of Ireland Hennessy Portrait Prize, the Lewis Crosby Award for Painting and the Golden Fleece Award, while he also helped set up Wickham Street Studios in Limerick and has held many solo exhibitions across the country.

This was a collaborative event hosted by the Irish Museum of Virtual Art IMVA with the work of Gerry Davis, curated by Jacinta Moore.