2018
La Famille de Belamy
An imagined family of portraits made with GANs trained on 15,000 classical paintings. Edmond de Belamy was auctioned at Christie’s in 2018.
O B V I O U S
Obvious
We are a French trio of artists and researchers: Pierre Fautrel, Gauthier Vernier and Hugo Caselles-Dupré. We use artificial intelligence algorithms to create works of art.
Our work came to international attention in 2018 when Edmond de Belamy became the first AI-generated painting sold by a major auction house, Christie’s New York.
CHRISTIE’S · 2018$432,500Edmond de BelamyAt the crossroads of classical art and contemporary technology, our works have since been exhibited in museums around the world. We are represented by Danysz gallery.
Through collaborations with Nike, Alpine and the Opéra de Paris, we bring research tools into creative practice across industries.
In 2024, IMAGINE, developed with the Paris Brain Institute, used AI and MRI to represent visual imagination from brain activity. The project resulted in a scientific paper and exhibitions in Paris and Seoul.
In 2026, we co-created Molière Ex Machina with Sorbonne University. Generative models and expert knowledge came together in a play that premiered at the Royal Opera of Versailles.
Selected works & projects
2019
Electric Dreams of Ukiyo
AI-generated Japanese portraits and landscapes draw a parallel between the arrival of electricity in Japan and the arrival of AI.
2020
Facets of AGI
Twenty-two AI-invented masks question belief in artificial general intelligence. A Ghanaian craftsman translated the generated images into physical objects.
2020
Parietal Burners
Prehistoric cave painting meets contemporary street art in a series created with AI and collaborating street artists.
2022
7.1
The seven wonders of the ancient world reimagined as oil paintings, using ancient texts, historical research and text-to-image algorithms.
2022
Dream Capsules
A collection of 1,000 machine-generated dreams and nightmares, combining generated stories, text-to-image models and super-resolution.
2022
Sastruga
An Alpine A110 art car whose design brings together AI-generated racing tracks, simulated airflow and wind-carved snow patterns.
2023
Emergence
A series of 256 video artworks for the Opéra de Paris, transforming ballet movements through AI into the changing aesthetics of four seasons.
2024
IMAGINE
Surrealist artworks created from mental images, reconstructed with AI from fMRI brain scans. An artistic exploration of mind-to-image technology.
2024
Eco Eterno
A generative audiovisual work for Dolce&Gabbana’s From the Heart to the Hands exhibition, joining geometry, light and speculative fashion.
2025
Infinit
Unique Kiprun athlete jerseys generated from a non-repeating geometric pattern. Each runner wears part of the same infinite design.
2026
The Cycle: Incipit
Ceramic frescoes translate the societies, beliefs and mythologies emerging from simulations of autonomous AI agents.
Obvious Research
We created our AI research laboratory in 2023 in partnership with Sorbonne University, to develop new algorithms for artistic creation and release them as open source.
Our research covers image, video and sound generation, including Mind-to-Image, FrescoDiffusion and JoLT.
Exhibitions
2026 NOÛS festivalBibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France
2026 The Cycle: IncipitSun Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2025 SubmergeArtechouse, New York, USA
2025 From The Heart to the HandsGrand Palais, Paris, France
2019 Artificial Intelligence and Intercultural DialogueHermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Obvious brings together art and research, with a shared studio practice inspired by Renaissance workshops.
All series, collaborations & exhibitions →
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