Bio

James Merrill is an algorithmic visual artist who resides in Vermont, USA. He creates computational artwork, combining generative system design, mathematics, randomness, and data to create infinitely unique systems.

A third-generation artist, James has been creating digital artworks for over 25 years. His work seeks to utilize technology to challenge assumptions about the nature of traditional art, and oftentimes starts as a program and ends as a physical artwork, drawn to extreme detail by robotic systems.

James' work has been displayed internationally, with installations from Times Square to The Netherlands. He has been curated online in exhibitions with Artblocks, Unit London, Highlight and Feral File.

Artist Statement

I seek to render chaos with the perfection of mathematics. I find patterns within datasets and create visions utilizing them. My data may be purely random, derived from blockchains, or entered via interfaces from myself or others. I create generative systems capable of returning infinite unique artworks by incorporating techniques I've cultivated for over 25 years of designing digital artwork.

Studio Ethos

An art practice can be like alchemy, where ingredients complement or react to each other. It is often interesting to create new mixtures by sampling radically different art practices to develop new processes. This is how James' studio is composed.

On the one hand, James' work originates in a digital environment, comprised of code workflows that create vectors. This context is sterile, precise, and reproducible. Code is authored without significant use of AI, based on geometric concepts with varying levels of hacks and workarounds. Often, a primitive function, such as line intersections, occlusion, and other applications of computational geometry are refined and applied to artworks.

On the other hand is the physical creation of the work. This domain is imprecise, inaccurate, well-worn, patinaed, and heavily informed by traditional artistic practices. Machines hum as they draw with pens on paper. Texture and richness is embedded into the art. Accidents happen. Ingenuity, inventiveness, and a tolerance for ink splatters are all worthy traits to possess. Research tends to focus on fine art and scientific illustrations, as well as the properties of different inks and paper stocks.

The combination of these two fields within one studio allows James to exert extreme precision and influence in his work, while also allowing chance and warmth into its creation through drawing machines.