Digital Artist Quayola Reprises Monet at Frieze London
In partnership with LG OLED

A garden near the Loire River was videoed, analysed by an algorithm, and animated in lush digital oils in a collaboration with Frieze sponsor LG OLED.

Flowers that could have been lifted from Claude Monet paintings bob and weave in the breeze in London-based artist Quayola's 'Jardins d'Été' (2023) series, which showed at Frieze London this week.

The blooms smear the screen with an opacity uncannily reminiscent of oil paint before, suddenly, the algorithm disengages, revealing the real blossoms Quayola recorded at Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire in France to create the work.

' "Jardins d'Été" explores a hybrid substance between the pictorial and the algorithmic,' said the Italian artist, who is based in London.

The hour-long videos are displayed on all four walls of a room divided by its own garden of flowers and grasses installed in the space at the suggestion of Kate Oh, vice president of the Brand Communication Division at LG Home Entertainment Company.

It's a small indoor garden, surrounded by a digital garden, surrounded by the grounds of Regent's Park.

'We are pleased to engage in a captivating collaboration with a talented artist—Quayola,' Oh said. 'Together, we aim to redefine artistic boundaries, blending art and technology in ways that captivate and inspire audiences, as showcased in our exhibitions and collaborative efforts.'

LG OLED has partnered with digitals artists before, realising new interpretations of works by Damien Hirst at Frieze London in 2021, for instance, and responses to works by Kim Whanki, a giant of Korean abstraction, at Frieze Seoul this year.

Oh said LG is frequently approached by digital artists looking to bring their works to life with the best possible resolution and colour fidelity.

In a previous collaboration, Anish Kapoor praised LG OLED screens' 'fantastical, surreal colours' and self-lit pixels, which enable 'perfect black colour'.

It is strange, perhaps, to think of colour as a technology, but Norwegian chemist Peder Farup was among those who contributed to the invention of titanium white at the start of the 20th century. Pigments such as carmine reds, produced from cochineal bugs, had to be sourced, imported, and paid for, often by patrons.

Oh sees LG's contribution of cutting-edge screens in the same tradition.

That's backed up by Quayola, who said, 'the complex tones and palettes in this series are perfectly enhanced by LG OLED's canvases, their exceptional picture quality blurring the lines between the digital and the physical.' —[O]