IRL Collector co-curation code based Expressionism

For Zero10, Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 we are building an experience which we hope will resonate with a wide audience who know little to nothing about algorithmic art and or digital assets.

How it works:

Visitors are able to generate unique artworks through an intuitive interface, shown in the context of large curated prints from the same system. Participants can select a favorite result to mint to a custodial wallet and collect a small, but high quality on-demand print, signed by the artist.

The experience, name, and description of this project are designed for audiences with little or no prior exposure to code-based art. The interactive component helps visitors build an intuitive understanding of the practice and how it connects to the broader history of art made with traditional media. I believe that when work does not obviously appear to be created through an abstract process like code, it can spark a natural curiosity and openness in those new to this form of digital art.

The idea of co-creating and owning a unique artwork at an accessible price point is nothing special in our space. But this, I believe, is still one of the real radical innovations offered by long form generative art in the context of the traditional art world. This project is in no way trying to push the boundaries of code-based or digital art. It is a project designed to bring some of the magic we all take for granted to a general art appreciative audience. I believe there are many innovations we take for granted in this ecosystem and forget 99.99% of the world still knows nothing about them. Careful framing and delivery of these technologies, modalities and ideas is key to bringing our art to a wider audience IMO.

Intro to the Works and Process

Rayner works with the medium of computer code and mathematics to express human emotion: an unlikely approach to a heart led artistic practice. However the artist insists algorithmic art is a direct craft, even a modern extension of drawing and painting that can be explored with expressionistic intent.

Visually, there are few things that express emotion more than the movement and poise of the human form. Social and survival imperatives have led to us evolving a heightened sensitivity to body language and gesture.

Algorithmic Synesthesia is an attempt to create a visual language from the abstracted geometry of posture and gesture. Reimagining the gestural mark-making of De Kooning and Bacon through algorithmically authentic processes.

Central to the compositions are voluminous stacked forms inspired by Moore and Léger's cubist figures which press and recoil in convulsed poses. Shrouding and veiling these assembled figures are cascades of color. Rayner envisions these as great lamenting outflows.

Color in these works is treated like an elemental force. Seen at large printed scales, the uncontrived graphic building-blocks revealed in vivid pigments are bold and unapologetic. This rawness is an analogue of thick painterly brush strokes that on close inspection brings the viewer back to the truth of the surface and the reality of the process.

At its deepest level all color and form in these works are algebra, logic and geometry. Participants at Art Basel are invited to co-create never-seen-before artworks by effectively seeding the art-making process with random numbers. The result is a kind of collective synesthesia where numbers have a direct expression as form, color and texture, experienced through the artist’s vision defined in code.

Work in progress

Abiding drivers of art markets are wealth and status signaling, glamor, gambling and of course beauty and finesse. However, gambling and wealth flexing is often not openly discussed in connection to blue-chip art when it is being shown and sold. It is often the elephant in the room. Monte Carlo is a light-hearted attempt to build a visual language that evokes a romantic stylization of that elephant. Evoking vintage glamor, 1970s Grand Prix, Monaco Casino and James Bond Ritz all in a language that feels techno and native to the crypto focused ecosystem in which it lives. The work is a visual celebration of an undeniable aspect of the Art market that's both easy to love or hate, but hard to be real about. The retro stylization is a way to put some distance between us and what would otherwise be an expression of casino bling and shameless ostentation. When it has a nostalgic patina, somehow it feels more tasteful, sophisticated and civilized.