It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to publish on my personal blog. But key things remain, including the timeliness of our commentary and efforts towards building space with equal opportunities. If 2021 was a rollercoaster for artistic creativity within web3, in 2022, we somehow collectively accepted that the world is changing at an accelerated pace and are just trying to keep up.
I thought enough players had entered the space since my early rambling about why digital art is fascinating. But it seems that is not enough since there is still room for awareness. After seeing an all-male generative and algorithmic works exhibition announced, it felt like a good idea to highlight some of the amazing women artists working with code and Blockchain.
As defined by Tate, generative art typically refers to art made using a predetermined system that often includes an element of chance and is usually applied to computer-based art. Blockchain has enabled a new, somewhat participatory role of the audience to interact with the medium, allowing buyers to be directly part of the creation process as the works become minted at the time of purchase. We’ve seen marketplaces and artists working to create unique experiences where the time of day, latitude, or wallet address can determine the final output.
Moving on from the prologue, let’s dive into a highlight (that I intend to grow) of some women artists that have caught my attention over the years. Descriptions taken from profile bios or written up based on collections.
Iskra Velitchkova @pointline_
Collection: Generative nature. Name: no name I, Iskra Velitchkova, 2021
Iskra Velitchkova is a Bulgarian artist based in Madrid. In her work, Velitchkova explores the present and potential interactions between humans and machines, and how instead of making technology more human, this relationship can push us to better understand our limits. She believes that roots and tradition can nurture her work with greater truth.
fxhash profile
Feral File profile
Aleksandra Jovanić @alexis_o_O
Herbarium, 2022, Aleksandra Jovanić
Aleksandra Jovanić is an artist and programmer from Belgrade, Serbia, where she teaches at the new media department at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She was part of the first cohort of artists to exhibit at Art Basel in 2022 in Hong Kong as part of the Tezos-based platform generative art platform fxhash live minting experience. Visitors of the art fair were able to set up a Tezos wallet at the show and mint a free edition of the Herbarium collection.
Anna Lucia @annaluciacodes
Loom, Anna Lucia, 2021
Anna Lucia is an artist and engineer, and her preferred medium is computer programming. She writes compositional instructions to be executed by a computer within a space of randomness. Her aesthetic is characterized by geometric abstraction and bold color palettes.
Melissa Wiederrecht @mwiederrecht
Orbs, Melissa Wiederrecht, 2022
Melissa Wiederrecht is a Generative Artist from America. She uses code (any and all sorts) and procedural processes (of any sort) to generate her art. She is a computer scientist (MS) and machine learning engineer by education, but an artist at heart. Her work ranges from surface pattern design collections to NFT collections on the blockchain.
Art Blocks profile
fxhash profile
Hiro Ozaki @Sputniko
The Nursery, Sputniko!, 2022
Sputniko is a multi-media artist and filmmaker creating works on the themes of technology, gender, and feminism. Her work has been exhibited across major international museums and she was awarded Vogue Japan Woman of the Year in 2013. Sputniko taught at the MIT Media Lab as an Assistant Professor and is currently an Associate Professor at the Tokyo University of Arts. For The Nursery, Sputniko's first edition of 100 NFTs at Bright Moments in London, the artist collaborated with a female programmer and designer, Misaki Nakano.
Sarah Ridgley @sarah_ridgley
Himinn, Sarah Ridgley, 2021
Sarah Ridgley is an internationally exhibited generative artist that has been minting work since 2019. Her work focuses and blaring the boundaries between the hand-drawn and the computer-drawn, reflecting human touch in machine-made work. Ridgley uses Processing (p5js) and JavaScript to build her programs, and designs her own algorithmic brushes to complete each piece. There is also a frequent tribute to Poetry in her work, including the series “The Lover’s Case” for theVERSEverse poetry NFT gallery that was made using the artists asemic writing algorithm to explore symbology in dialogue with the meaningless.
Emily Xie @emilyxxie
Memories of Qilin, Emily Xie, 2022
Emily Xie is a NYC-based generative artist and engineer. She works with algorithms to create lifelike textures, patterns, and forms which are often encoded with elements of her own culture and femininity.
Alida Sun @alidasun
glitch crystal monsters, Alida Sun, 2021
New York raised and Internet-based artist Alida Sun has studied industrial design with a Bauhaus foundation school. Her current studio practice is primarily concerned with assemblage, fluid dynamics, time crystals, and experimental humanities.
Sofia Crespo @soficrespo91
neural swarm, Sofia Crespo, 2022
Lisbon-based Sofia Crespo is an artist working with a huge interest in biology-inspired technologies. One of her main focuses is the way organic life uses artificial mechanisms to simulate itself and evolve, this implying the idea that technologies are a biased product of the organic life that created them and not a completely separated object.
Amy Goodchild @amygoodchild
Maplands, Amy Goodchild, 2022
London-based artist Amy Goodchild uses a mix of code and other technology to create art which explores generativity, group experience, and interaction.
Melissa Rodriguez @hellomelissarod
Lunar, Melissa Rodriguez, 2021
Artist and creative coder Melissa Rodriguez began her journey in 2018 learning p5.js and currently primarily uses Processing.
Objkt profile
Anna Carreras @carreras_anna
Trossets, Anna Carreras, 2021
Barcelona-based creative coder and digital artist Anna Carreras is interested in experimentation on interactive communication. Her work focuses on the use of generative algorithms, creative code and interactive technology as a means of communication and an experience generator.
Monica Rizzolli @MonicaRizzolli
Fragments of an Infinite Field, Monica Rizzolli, 2021
Monica Rizzolli is best known for her computer so wares that transform environmental cues into landscape animations. The simulations explore themes such as: the image of the city, environmental psychology and the human perception of space. Rizzolli currently lives and works in São Paulo.
Jess Hewitt @rustysniper1
Divergent Convergence, Jess Hewitt, 2022
Jess Hewitt is an artist, developer and the co-founder of Generative Toys, providing tools for creators to produce generative art. Her work mainly focuses on abstract digital art, generative, AI-assisted and glitch art, inspired by the psychedelic, surreal and playful.
Kaoru Tanaka @v_kaoru
廻る, Still, Kaoru Tanaka, 2021
Kaoru Tanaka is a digital artist based in Japan who creates real-time generative art and experiments. In July 2022 she has worked with Richie Hawtin (performed by Manami Sakamoto) for the Prada Extends cultural series that celebrates the creative community, connecting Japanese culture, music and internationally renown artists.
Helena Sarin @NeuralBricolage
Artificial Blues, a Sketchbook, from the Etchings of Latentscaux series, Helena Sarin, 2022
Pioneering visual artist and software engineer Helena Sarin has worked at Bell Labs, designing commercial communication systems, and for the last few years as an independent consultant, developing computer vision software using deep learning. Sarin finds inspiration in unifying patterns of nature and computation. The artist uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) that reveal some of these patterns and reassembles them in intriguing ways. She strives for her generative artwork to be not only interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but to reflect the characteristics of her analog art—improvised, bold, and deeply personal.
Itzel Yard @ix_shells
How do you feel?, Itzel Yard, 2021
Known under her artist name IX Shells, Itzel Yard is a Panamanian-based artist and self taught coder. In 2021 she became the highest-selling female NFT artist with the $2 million sale of her artwork “Dreaming at Dusk”. The artist trained herself in coding and various computer process languages while simultaneously studying architectural technology in Toronto.
Ivona Tau @ivonatau
Mythic Latent Glitches, Ivona Tau, 2022
Ivona Tau is an award-winning generative AI artist exploring the subjective world interpretations, fragmented memories and emotional states by training custom neural networks on photography. Her work “VISIONS: reflected” was one of the early tokenised works sold at Sotheby's in 2021.
LIA @liasomething
little boxes on the hillsides, child, LIA, 2021
Austrian artist LIA is considered one of the pioneers of software and net art and has been producing works since 1995. Her practice spans across video, performance, software, installations, sculpture, projections and digital applications.
Nadieh Bremer @NadiehBremer
Twistings, Nadien Bremer, 2022
Nadieh Bremer is an award-winning data visualization designer and artist, working from a small town near Amsterdam, with a background in data science. In 2011 she graduated as an Astronomer from the University of Leiden. As a freelancing data visualization designer, Bremer’s projects include web-based (subtly) interactive visualizations. They mostly focus on static visualizations that allow freedom in their design, and creating data art where the final result could be framed on a wall, or can be used as branding or marketing material.
Lisa Orth @LisaOrthStudio
Suspended Pathways : Aqua 00a, Lisa Orth, 2022
A creative polymath, Lisa began her artistic path in Seattle as a graphic designer and art director. Since entering the NFT art space in 2020, Lisa’s been focused on creating abstract generative art with processing and p5.js. Over the past two years, her generative art has been exhibited at conferences, galleries and museums around the globe.
This is a non exhaustive list of talented women artists using code in creative way. You can add suggestions here.