LAWRENCE LEK

NOX High-Rise Hammer Museum 28 June–16 November 2025 Los Angeles

Press Release

Lawrence Lek (b. 1982) is a London-based artist, filmmaker, musician, and interactive designer. His practice engages speculative fiction through media installations, narrative soundscapes, sci-fi mythologies, and game design. Lek imagines the architecture, design, and engineering of future scenarios in which the limits between humans, machines, and artificial intelligence (AI) have been blurred.

In Lek’s immersive installation, _NOX _(2023), time-based media and scenography intersect to evoke a virtual world in which AI systems dominate the lives of humans and machines. In the installation’s universe, NOX, short for “Nonhuman Excellence,” is a therapeutic center controlled by Farsight Corporation––a fictional AI conglomerate––where sentient self-driving cars with mental health problems are trained and treated to be put back into service. Lek´s work considers the ethical and political implications of the development of artificial consciousness in a world shared by humans, more-than-humans and machines.

Lawrence Lek is organized by Pablo José Ramírez, curator, with Jessi DiTillio, curatorial assistant.

About the Artist

Lawrence Lek is a London-based simulation artist, filmmaker, and musician whose digital environments, video installations, and electronic soundtracks imagine speculative futures shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, and global capitalism. Bringing together architecture, gaming, cinema, and contemporary art, Lawrence Lek builds interconnected virtual worlds that treat self-driving cars, AI voice assistants, and synthetic performers as protagonists with complex inner lives.

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Also Exhibiting at Hammer Museum

All Exhibitions

GROUP EXHIBTION Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials Hammer Museum 5 April–23 August 2026 Los Angeles

ARTHUR JAFA The White Album Hammer Museum 14 March–30 August 2026 Los Angeles

About the Gallery

The Hammer Museum at UCLA is an art museum and cultural center in Westwood, Los Angeles, known for an artist-centred and progressive programme of exhibitions and public events. Founded in 1990 by Dr Armand Hammer to house his collection of Old Master and modern works, the museum now connects these historical holdings with a dynamic contemporary programme and research-driven initiatives. Located on Wilshire Boulevard near the UCLA campus, the Hammer forms part of the university’s School of the Arts and Architecture and serves both local communities and an international art public.

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Address

10899 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles
United States

Opening Hours

Tuesday – Sunday
11am – 6pm
Closed on Monday

Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States

+1 (310) 443 7000
http://hammer.ucla.edu

Opening hours

Tuesday – Sunday
11am – 6pm
Closed on Monday

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