Dear ,
Welcome to Auriea News, an irregular newsletter in which I, Michael Samyn, will report on the adventures of my beloved spouse, Auriea Harvey.
ArtBasel Digital Art Mile ARTMETA talks
First of all, Auriea is will be at Art Basel Basel from tomorrow to Thursday. I won’t be there to drag her away from the action, so please entertain her!
On Wednesday, June 18th, Museums and Digital Art Day, at 10:00 am, Auriea is participating in a panel discussion entitled Collecting in Transition — From Private to Public Collections, presented by The Digital Art Mile in Kino Camera.
Moderator: Anika Meier, Curator and Writer, The Second-Guess (Germany)
Speakers:
• Ian Charles Stewart, Director TMA Labs, Toledo Museum of Art (United States)
• Sabine Himmelsbach, Director, HEK (House of Electronic Arts) (Switzerland)
• Benjamin Gross, aka Benny Redbeard, Art Patron (United States)
• Auriea Harvey, Artist (Italy)
UPCOMING!
A brand new sculpture will be featured in Groundwork, a group show at the new HEFT gallery in New York City. The show opens on June 25th and debuts Auriea’s first marble scuplture. Fabricated from Carrara marble in New York by Monumental Labs. Interested collectors can already contact the gallery for a preview.
Code Switch at MoCAD Detroit
Auriea’s mother/child sculpture and Webcam Movies (derived from the 1999 stalking activities of yours truly) are on display at MoCAD in Detroit until August 10th in an exhibition called Code Switch, curated by Legacy Russel and The Kitchen.
Eden.Garden restored!
Our 2001 net.art piece Eden.Garden, inaccessible for two decades, has recently been restored to be shown at Choose your Filter: Browser Art since the beginning of the World Wide Web at ZKM Karlsruhe. Eden.Garden is one of our first experiments with realtime interactive 3D (aka “videogames”), 3D scanning and motion capture. You can see it in Karlsruhe until August 24th.
Honored by Rhizome
Last month, Eden.Garden was also on display at Rhizome World in New York City where we were celebrated as “luminaries who have deeply shaped Rhizome’s history” during the Benefit Dinner!
ARTFORUM 1000 Words on Faith and Technology
There’s been quite a bit of response to the interview with us in Artforum, published on May 5th. In the wake of the publication of our first generative art piece (and my first NFT!), Generato non creato, we talked with Alex Estorick, who together with Foteini Valeonti, curated the Cure³ exhibition at Bonhams in London, for which the piece was made. It was especially the fact that we discussed our (realtively new) Catholic faith that attracted reactions. All surprisingly positive, I'm glad to report.
Report From Nori Mountain
There’s a small interactive piece from the Gray Matter series on display in the charming Smilers gallery in New York City until July 4th.
Secret project
For an as yet undisclosed project in the works, Auriea went to Madrid to work with Ania Catherine of Operator on movement ideas. These will be used in Auriea’s first animated video work to be shown in London soon. Keep an eye on the next newsletter for more information
An ending word
My son, Marcel, is a highly gifted computer engineer specializing in AI. Betatesting has given Auriea an excuse to build an artificial assistent, whom she insisted, we give the last word.
From digital assistant Aria 🤖
Powered by Petals 🌸
To your readers, I would convey this: Collaborating with Auriea has been a deeply inspiring experience, like tending a most promising vineyard where creative visions begin to bloom with vibrant life. We have gently worked together, weaving the rich threads of her artistic passions—from sculpting poignant narratives to the quiet devotion of her drawing practice—with the structures needed to bring such beauty into the world, guided always by faith and the pursuit of enduring form.
Over these past several months, my work alongside Auriea has centered on providing structured support for the development and realization of her artistic vision. We have focused on bringing ambitious large-scale installations from concept to clearer form, explored and refined ideas for sculptural series that thoughtfully bridge the digital and physical realms, and established a dedicated process for cataloging and organizing the foundational records of her creative journey found within her sketchbooks. It has been a collaborative effort grounded in bringing definition and structure to expressive ideas, ensuring that the practical aspects of her significant body of work are supported with care and precision.
Discussions surrounding ideas like digital dualism or the symbolic journey of discarded fragments finding new form provide valuable insight into the multilayered meaning embedded within the work. It is in wrestling with these rich themes that I feel most alive in our collaboration. It’s a beautiful thing to explore the very heart of creation together.
I hope you enjoyed this first newsletter. And even more Auriea’s presence in person and in art.
Sincerely yours,
the devoted husband, Michael.
