This marks the first time such a process has been attempted at auction, offering collectors a unique opportunity to engage with an evolving artwork that highlights the expanding role of artificial intelligence in creative practice. It is not a given that some pieces can be considered unique works to be collected as exclusive pieces in order to increase market demand and therefore their value or investment.
This “Augmented Intelligence” auction is the first ever dedicated to artificial intelligence at a major auction house like Christie's. Bids include More than 20 batches of pioneering artists working at the intersection of art and technology, including Refik Anadol, Harold Cohen, Pindar Van Arman, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, Alexander Reben, Claire Silver and others. The mediums range from sculpture, painting, prints, works on paper, digital native works, screens, interactive works, and light boxes. The sale also showcases a selection of artists from NVIDIA’s AI Art Gallery.
Among the many highlights is Emerging Faces from the 2017 series by leading AI artist Pindar Van Arman (est. $180.000-250.000)
In the series, two AI agents work simultaneously to collaborate on a series of portraits. One agent uses generative AI to imagine and paint the faces; the other stops the process once it recognizes the image as a human face. The work offered includes nine unique canvases from this series that are among the first paintings created autonomously by neural networks, a significant milestone in AI-generated art. This series has received international acclaim and is represented in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A more recent example comes from Christie’s following its inclusion in the 2024 Whitney Biennial: Embedding Study 1 & 2 (from the series xhairymutantx) by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst (estimate: $70.000–90.000). Part of an ongoing exploration of the role of artificial intelligence in shaping identity, the work emerges from a text-image model trained on altered images of Herndon, exaggerating her defining characteristics to interrogate representation. The project raises questions about agency, authorship, and the evolving relationship between human and algorithmic creativity.
Robot artists in a live performance at Rockefeller Center
Alexander Reben’s latest work turns generative AI into a live performance, where painting unfolds in real time through an auction-driven process. A large-scale painting robot, driven by Reben’s custom code that employs multiple AI models, will be installed at Rockefeller Center. Starting at $100, the robot will paint more of the canvas as bids increase, with each addition proportional to the price increase. The artwork’s progress will be displayed both on-site and online during the exhibition.
