Onassis ONX Rolls Out New Commissioning Model For Tech-Based Artworks

A new commissioning and distribution initiative will support artists working with emerging technologies both to create artworks and to place the completed pieces within institutions, museums and biennials. 

ONX Relay, announced by Onassis ONX (the Onassis Foundation’s global art and technology platform), has been designed to bridge the gap between artistic experimentation and institutional presentation. It will combine project funding with access for the participating artists to curatorial guidance, production resources and technical expertise. 

The initiative will work by integrating commissioning, production and presentation right from the start of a project, introducing artists to institutions to facilitate the placement of complex new artworks and to build projects that can extend their scope beyond a single exhibition. 

The first three artists selected to take part are Trevor Paglen, Maya Man and Ben Frost. Over the course of almost a year, the trio will have access to the Onassis ONX studios in New York City and Athens, as well as staff for consultation. Curators, museum directors and institutional partners will be able to preview the completed projects at an invitation-only event in spring 2027. 

The Onassis Foundation was founded by Aristotle Onassis in 1975 and works across culture, education and health. Onassis ONX is the Onassis Foundation’s global platform for art and advanced technologies, working with creatives and institutions.

“Behind every work of art is a process that cannot be rushed,” said Afroditi Panagiotakou, artistic director of the Onassis Foundation.“Artists need time, space, and support to experiment, take risks, and imagine what does not yet exist. Onassis ONX Relay is built around that belief. What ultimately reaches audiences is the imagination, care, and dreams that brought a work into being. Technology may be the material, but the story is always human.” 

LG Guggenheim Award winner Trevor Paglen’s work for ONX Relay, Neural Images, is based on the research he has already undertaken into the relationship between AI, perception and neuroscience and will comprise an immersive, interactive installation bringing audience into the image-generation process and a series of large-scale paintings translated from AI-generated imagery. 

Maya Man’s Dreams Come True will explore the way celebrity, cultural influence, labour and generative AI intersect in a multi-channel video installation about a fictional K-pop-inspired girl band, asking how algorithms and the entertainment industry co-construct identity and authenticity. 

Prometheus from Ben Frost is a large-scale multi-channel video and spatial sound installation reimagining Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound through filmed performance, original composition and moving images, examining themes of survival, sacrifice and suppressed knowledge. 

ONX Relay’s initial cohort was selected from an international pool of applicants nominated by curators, cultural professionals and other artists. A press statement from Onassis ONX said: “Bringing together commissioning, production, and institutional engagement within a single initiative, ONX Relay aims to help shape a more sustainable future for technology-based contemporary art and the artists defining its evolution.”