Author Archives: Niio

Digital Innovation in Art Award: Shortlist Announced

Niio is proud to announce to be among the nominees for the Digital Innovation in Art Award 2019, at the Investor Allstars in London. Investor Allstars is crowned as the “Oscars” for the entrepreneurship and investor communities.

The Digital Innovation In Art Award recognises a company or individual in the art industry that has used digital technology or the internet to disrupt and innovate within their field.

We congratulate our fellow shortlisted nominees. Stay tuned via our Instagram account to find out who wins on October 3rd! 

The Finalists

Steve Miller – ARTERNAL

Steve Miller is one of .ART’s first adopters, showcasing his artwork in versatile mediums at www.stevemiller.art. He is also a co-founder of ARTERNAL, a CRM software which assists art galleries in efficiently consolidating multiple platforms.

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Longping Derek Zhao – ARTEXB

Longping Derek Zhao founded ARTEXB inspired by the creation of Google Arts & Culture. It is a project supported by the medium of 360° panoramic VR, which aims to systematically document Chinese contemporary art exhibitions around the world.

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Jason Bailey – Artnome

Artnome is the blog of Jason Bailey, who self-identifies as an “art nerd” trying to trigger an art analytics revolution by building the world’s largest analytical database of known works across our most important artists.

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Vivi Kallinikou – ArtRabbit Ltd 

ArtRabbit is a unique guide to the contemporary art scene, connecting thousands of artspaces, exhibitions and events to artists, art professionals, collectors, students and art-interested people alike.

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Eugene Bogorad – ArtWalls

Over the past twenty years Eugene has been in senior positions in computer programming, technology and big data. An amateur photographer himself, he realized that bringing online and offline together could create the right kind of synergy. ArtWalls is a platform for bringing aspiring creators and art connoisseurs together, in public spaces and online.

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Justin Anthony – Artwork Archive

Artwork Archive is an innovative art business management software brand based in Denver, CO. Its cloud-based art database system offers a wide range of easy to use tools, including inventory and contact management, sales reports and expense tracking.

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Rob Anders – Niio

Niio is reimagining the way humans interact with art in their everyday lives. Underpinned by a robust technology platform that powers the entire ‘digital art’ ecosystem with dedicated management tools, Niio has amassed a global community of 3,500 leading artists, galleries and institutions who have stored and published over 11,000 high quality digital format artworks. Niio can then ‘port’ this gallery-quality digital art onto any screen, anywhere – unlocking an entirely new form of consumption: streaming digital art via subscription or purchase. 

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Jonathan Beck – Scan the World

Jonathan Beck is the founder of an online cultural heritage project Scan the World, an initiative that archives objects of cultural significance using 3D scanning technologies. Since its inception in 2014, the platform has created over 16,000 downloadable artefacts and received over 60 million views to its page.

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Mike LaTour – Soundwave Art™

Mike LaTour spent 17 years in the music industry before he became President & CEO Soundwave Art™. The app allows a unique experience of converting your own sounds into customisable works of art and jewellery.

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Joel Kremer – The Kremer Museum

Ex-Googler Joel Kremer is the director of The Kremer Museum, a VR museum which hosts an Old Masters collection of about 75 works collected over the years by Joel’s parents George and Ilone Kremer.

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Marco Cappellini – VirtuItaly

Marco Cappellini is the founder of VirtuItaly, a project that creates edutainment experiences with art through digital technologies, both with immersive and interactive digital exhibitions.

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Aretha Campbell – Bridgeman Images

Bridgeman Images works with museums, galleries, collections and artists to provide a central resource of fine art and archive footage for reproduction to creative professionals.The Bridgeman Artists’ Copyright Service is a service to artists and their estates to administer their copyright and sell reproduction licenses for their work.

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Niio Has Arrived In Asia

Niio has launched its Asia arm in Hong Kong in addition to operations in London, Tel Aviv and the US. Growing its innovation-driven business internationally, Niio brings premium curated new media art to Hong Kong with a newly commissioned curated artwork catalogue announced at Art Basel and exhibited at the city’s Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel, powered by Samsung SMART Signage.

A series of successful high profile projects in Hong Kong inspired Niio to plant permanent roots in the city to cater to a growing regional customer base and also to build out a strong community of Asian artists and galleries on the platform. In a bid to transform spaces and offer meaningful, thought-provoking  art experiences to public audiences, Niio recently powered the Sino Illumination Art Prize which enabled talented artists to exhibit their works to millions on huge screens overlooking Victoria Harbour and the company also curated the popular outdoor Mega Screen Art Screenings for Lai Sun at Cheung Sha Wan Plaza.

Niio x JM Network Art Moments // Artwork: Joe Hamilton, Cezanne Unfixed

“We’re excited to establish ourselves as part of the dynamic art scene in the cultural hub of Hong Kong and thrilled to be launching during Art Basel and collaborating with the prestigious Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel on this project. We are also happy to have the support of Samsung SMART Signage during this art-filled week. Art is permeating this city, reaching the masses through corporate and public activities. Simultaneously digital experiences and cutting-edge technology are an integral part of everyday life in Asia and Niio is excited to bring art and technology together here. We are aiming to balance the digital noise all around us with inspiring people through curated digital art experiences in private and public spaces and are equally excited about growing our community of Asian artists and to showcasing their work across the world. The digital medium is not only the most relevant for our generation, but the easiest to reach. With the Niio platform we hope to inspire the broadest audiences everywhere.” – Rob Anders, Niio CEO.

Rob Anders, Niio Co-founder at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental // Artwork: Branden summers, Idle Time Series

Niio has already established an agile local team on the ground, working collaboratively across industries including notable AVSI and hardware partners to support the needs of clients.

“Niio’s comprehensive technology ecosystem, dedicated to the digital medium, is a compelling community building platform and tool for the arts community. We hope to ignite enjoyment, curiosity and a deeper understanding what digital arts is all about.  Niio is delighted to take this opportunity to empower art professionals in Asia in this field to showcase and share their work internationally.” – Marissa Shaw, Advisor at Niio.

How Art Museum Presents: Quayola, Asymmetric Archaeology

Quayola: Asymmetric Archaeology Gazing Machines reimagines the past and rediscovers nature through the perspective of the machine. Through the works in the exhibition, the past is revisited in relationship to the present and the future, exploring an asymmetry that excludes the subjective view of the human and instead brings to the fore machine-processed objective ideas. Through these processes, classical art forms such as Hellenistic sculptures, Old Master paintings, and Baroque architecture are detached from iconographical semantics of the past to be regenerated into digital abstract works. In addition, familiar visual tropes of nature are transformed into a new artificial landscape engendered by machinery.

Strata I, Laocoon

The artist’s first large-scale solo exhibition in China consists of eight sections featuring artworks in a range of different media, including over 50 pieces of digital print, video, sculpture, and robotic installation. The expansive breadth of the exhibit presents major works by Quayola not only within the interior gallery space of HOW Art Museum, but also extends across the building’s media facades. The exhibition was curated by Doo Eun Choi.

Strata, Iconographies, Sculpture Factory #2 and Laocoön are four projects that analyze classical paintings, sculptures, and architecture using complex computer algorithms, recreating contemporary abstract works by severing religious and mythical scenes from their past contexts. Sculpture Factory is inspired by the ‘non-finito’ technique of Michelangelo whereby unworked sections of the sculpture block mean that pieces appear unfinished. Into this scenario, the artist introduces a new performance undertaken by a large-scale robot, which sculpts infinite variations of Pluto and Proserpina, a Baroque masterpiece produced by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini in the 17th century. Laocoön, meanwhile, draws inspiration from one of the most studied Ancient Greek sculptural masterpieces, Laocoön and His Sons. Quayola’s work is the result of complex digital simulations and experiments with virtual/physical prototyping technologies.

Iconographies

Remains, Promenade, Jardins d’Été and Camouflage represent ongoing projects that reexamine the familiar visual language of nature associated with traditional compositions of landscape paintings. Through intricate digital rendering processes, new digital landscapes emerge from actual natural scenes that are captured in high resolution using high-precision laser scanners and cameras. Diverse motifs come in to play for each work by recreating a new visual literacy; Remains observes the popular practice of en plein air (outdoor painting) of the late 19th century; Promenade explores the new aesthetics of contemporary autonomous vehicles and machine vision using a drone; and Jardins d’Été and Camouflage evoke imagery from the French impressionism of Claude Monet. Ultimately, the works become hybrid landscapes – neither real nor virtual – transcending the boundaries of the figurative and abstract domains.

Our banalities are freely detached from their original contexts to become new objects of contemplation through the peculiar mechanism of machinery and the complex algorithms of Quayola.

Jardins d’Été

Quayola employs technology as a lens to explore the tensions and equilibriums between seemingly opposing forces: the real and artificial, figurative and abstract, old and new. Constructing immersive installations, often at historically significant architectural sites, he engages with and reimagines canonical imagery through contemporary technology. Hellenistic sculpture, Old Master painting, and Baroque architecture are some of the historical aesthetics that serve as a point of departure for Quayola’s abstract compositions. His varied practice, all deriving from custom computer software, also includes audiovisual performance, video, sculpture, and works on paper.

Quayola’s work has been shown widely around the world through 10 solo exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions, public installations and performances. His past exhibitions include Park Avenue Armory, New York, USA; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Paco Das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; Elektra Festival, Montreal, Canada; Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain; Japan Media Art Festival, Tokyo and Sundance Film Festival, Utah, USA.

Music collaborations include Vanessa Wagner, Ensemble Intercontemporain, National Orchestra of Bordeaux, London Contemporary Orchestra, Plaid, Jamie XX and Tale Of Us.

Special projects have been commissioned by Audemars Piguet; Bozar, Brussels; Cite’ de la Musique, Paris; Palais des Beaux Arts, Lille and Canary Wharf Group, London.

THE EXHIBITION IS POWERED BY NIIO

“It’s quite an amazing system for preserving, managing and distributing digital video editions. My gallerist and I are using Niio for transferring limited editions to buyers and to museums for exhibitions.” Quayola, new media artists, represented by bitforms gallery, NY

Niio is  the premium discovery, display and management platform for new media art, embraced by leading artists, galleries, museums, curators, collectors and arts organisations from around the world, who are using Niio’s proprietary technology tools to securely safeguard, showcase, transfer, monetise and display thousands of their high-quality works on any type of “digital canvas.

HOW Art Museum 
No 1, Lane 2277, Zuchongzhi Road
201203 Shanghai | China

Expanding Bauhaus. Screening Series by blinkvideo & Goethe Institute

A screening series by blinkvideo in collaboration with Goethe Institute Netherlands selected by Elke Kania, Julia Sökeland and Ludwig Seyfarth, powered by Niio.

With its combination of various arts such as painting, photography film, architecture, fashion, product and interior design and textile art, the Bauhaus is still considered the epitome of a technologically advanced modernity. Last but not least, the attempt to create the whole society aesthetically, inspired many artists worldwide. Even in the contemporary Moving Image Art, the Bauhaus heritage is referenced in many ways, directly or associatively. For example, the Bauhaus architecture or modernist buildings that are in their tradition are being re-interviewed as living models, the modernisation of cities and the changing perception of new technologies with comparable intensity targeted as by the artists of the Bauhaus or the lens-less film experiments like those of László Moholy-Nagy were taken up with today’s technical possibilities. An insight into international Film Art shows: even 100 years later – the Bauhaus lives, at least in the visions of the artists. 

The screening series ate realised parallel to the exhibition „The Netherlands ⇄ Bauhaus – Pioneers of a New World” (February 9th – May 26th 2019) in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. 

Screening #01: Creating Worlds 
Thursday, 14.02.2019, 19:00 h 
The creation of living worlds can reflect political ideologies, reveal a desire to shape private living space or follow media models from feature films. The screening works reflect these concepts. 

Dimitri Venkov, The Hymns of Muscovy, 2018
Miriam Gossing & Lina Sieckmann, Sonntag, Büscherhöfchen 2, 2014
One Hour Real, 2017
followed by an Artist Talk with Gossing/Sieckmann
Curated and moderated by Elke Kania and Julia Sökeland. 

Dimitri Venkov, The Hymns of Muscovy, 2018

Screening #02: Bigger than Life / Built Histories
Thursday, 07.03.2019, 19:00 h 
How is history reflected in (modern) architecture? And can history be architecturally “invented”? A project called “Skopje 2014.” so far errected some thirty government buildings and museums, as well as countless monuments in the classic style, in an attempt to put Skopje on a par with Rome and Athens. A city looks for a future in history. 

Adnan Softic, Bigger Than Life, 2018
Tight tissue – or – The body is my temple, 1999
Niklas Goldbach, 1150 San Remo Drive, 2017
Habitat C3B, 2008
followed by an Artist Talk with Adnan Softic. 
Curated and moderated by Julia Sökeland and Ludwig Seyfarth.

Niklas Goldbach, 1550 San Remo Drive, 2017

Screening #03: Transition of Technology: Moving the Image 
Thursday, 21.03.2019, 19:00 h 
The combination of photography and film and the use of “imaging” with light in photograms shaped the work of László Moholy-Nagy; his telephone pictures from the 1920s can be interpreted as early works of media art. The screening presents contemporary camera-less film art, new approaches between static photography and the movement of images. 

Stephanie Gudra, Wuslon, 2017
Benjamin Verhoeven, Somebody was trying to kill Somebody Else, 2014
Tim Gorinski, Generative Ideas (working title), 2019
Barbara Hammer, Sanctus, 1990, on loan from JULIA STOSCHEK FOUNDATION Düsseldorf/Berlin, 
www.julia-stoschek-collection.net, Courtesy of the artist and KOW, Berlin 
Ugo Petronin, Abiding, 2019
followed by a Q&A with Ugo Petronin, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam 
Curated and moderated by Elke Kania. 

Ugo Petronin, Abiding, 2019

Screening #04: Facades and Interieur / How do we feel in modern environments?
Thursday, 25.04.2019, 19:00 h
How does the functionalist credo of the Bauhaus live on in architecture? And how does architecture relate to human scale? Today’s artists pursue this question with various cinematic means. 

Rebecca Ann Tess, The Tallest, 2014
Martina Wolf, Regen I, Dresden. 2002
Moira Zoitl, Kitchen Torso: On Reducing the Number of Steps, 2013
followed by an Artist Talk with Rebecca Ann Tess. 
Curated and moderated by Ludwig Seyfarth. 

Martina Wolf, Regen I, Dresden, 2002


Screening #05: Architectural Utopies – Here and Now Thursday,16.05.2019, 19:00 h 
How do utopias of Bauhaus architecture function in the midst of a media present? Technology and aspects of social media find their way into the glass house of memory, into the models of public and private spaces. 

Rebecca Ann Tess, The Tallest, 2014

Manuel Graf, Shulmantonioni, 2004,
courtesy the artist and VAN HORN, Duesseldorf 
Frauke Boggasch & Martin Sulzer, ホームドリーム / Hōmudorīmu / Home Dream, 2019 – reflecting the development of the Bauhaus Architecture nowadays at Japan 
Elizabeth Price, At the House of Mr. X, 2007
on loan from JULIA STOSCHEK FOUNDATION Düsseldorf/Berlin, www.julia-stoschek-collection.net, Courtesy of the artist and MOT International, London 
Arianne Olthaar, Hotel Forum, 2016,
followed by an Artist Talk with Arianne Olthaar. 
Curated and moderated by Elke Kania.

Quayola: Asymmetric Archaeology

Quayola’s first comprehensive exhibition in Asia, which is atArt Space at Paradise City, Incheon, Korea until 24 February 2019, reimagines the past and rediscovers nature through the perspectives of machine. The past is revisited in relationship with the present and future – exploring asymmetry – that completely excludes humans’ subjective views and leaves machine processed objective ideas. Through these processes, classical art forms such as Hellenistic sculptures, old master paintings, and Baroque architecture are detached from iconographical semantics of the past to be regenerated into digital abstract works. In addition, familiar visual tropes of nature are transformed into a new artificial landscape engendered by machinery.

The exhibition, curated by Doo Eun Choi, consists of six sections with multi-genre artworks, including about 50 pieces of digital print, video, sculpture, and robotic installation. The breadth of the exhibit presents major works of Quayola not only inside Art Space, but also extends into the Art Garden with large-scale projection mapping and 3 channel-screenings at the Art Plaza.

Quayola, Pleasant Places

Iconographies, Strata, and Sculpture Factory are projects that analyse classical paintings, sculptures, and architecture through complicated computer algorithms, recreating contemporary abstract works by severing religious and mythical scenes of the past.

Quayola, Strata

Remains, Jardins d’Été and Pleasant Places are his ongoing projects that reexamine familiar visual languages of nature and traditional compositions of landscape paintings. Through complicated digital rendering, new digital landscapes emerge from actual natural landscapes that are captured in high resolution by high-precision laser scanners and cameras. Diverse motifs come in to play for each work by recreating a new visual literacy; Remains observes the En plein air in the late 19th century; Jardins d’Été co-opts imagery from the French impressionism of Claude Monet; and Pleasant Places evokes the 17th century Dutch landscape paintings, which are considered to be the origin of landscape paintings. Ultimately, the works become hybrid landscapes – neither real nor virtual – transcending the boundaries of the figurative and abstract domains.

The exhibition is powered by Niio

“It’s quite an amazing system for preserving, managing and distributing digital video editions. My gallerist and I are using Niio for transferring limited editions to buyers and to museums for exhibitions.” Quayola, new media artists, represented by bitform gallery, NY

Niio is  the premium discovery, display and management platform for new media art, embraced by leading artists, galleries, museums, curators, collectors and arts organisations from around the world, who are using Niio’s proprietary technology tools to securely safeguard, showcase, transfer, monetise and display thousands of their high-quality works on any type of “digital canvas.

About Paradise Art Space

Paradise Art Space recently opened with works by world-class artists from East and West including Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Kim Ho Deuk, and Lee Bae. Meet the past, present and future of contemporary art from all around the world at this exhibition directed by director Chung, Goo-ho.Paradise City’s art exhibition gallery showcasing a new level of cultural experience and works from wide-ranging genres by prominent Korean and global artists.

Hong Kong Harbour Transformed Into a Major Immersive Art Experience

In partnership with Sino Group, Niio transformed two of Hong Kong’s largest screens into digital, public art installations. The facades of prominent Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui Centre (76m x 39m) and Empire Centre (35m x 39m) are showcasing the winning submissions of the Sino x Niio Illumination Art Prizes, a competition opened to emerging digital artists who were invited to submit artworks in the themes of Artistic Blessing and New Life. The competition was held in collaboration with Sino Group, the Hong Kong-based property developer. 

Artwork: Daniel Belton and Good Company Art, OneOne


“We live in a fast-paced, commercially noisy world with countless screens across our urban environments, and no more so than in major cities like Hong Kong”, says Rob Anders, Co-Founder & CEO of Niio. “In trying to reach and inspire people everywhere through memorable and meaningful ‘Digital Art experiences’, we are thrilled to partner with Sino Group for the Illumination Art Prize. It is these types of public art interventions that are driving an entirely new visual culture.”

The winning artwork was created by Daniel Belton and Good Company Arts for the theme Artistic Blessing. Their work, OneOne invokes a sense of ancient culture, an archetype being unearthed through real-world experience that is timeless and contemporary. For the theme New Life, Krehel Race won first place for his work The Spring Shrine representing a world where technology has allowed us to return to our natural surroundings and to find a true Zen space, away from the chaos. 


“Sino Group is delighted to have collaborated with Niio on this ground-breaking international digital art project. We were thoroughly impressed with the exceptional content of work we received, with artists from 39 countries participating. We hope visitors enjoy the outstanding illuminations on the façade of these Hong Kong landmarks during the festive season,” said Nikki Ng, Group General Manager of Sino Group.

The Illumination Art Prize competition is part of Niio’s drive to inspire people around the world, making it easy to experience curated digital art across living, working and public spaces. In doing so, they are connecting large developers and businesses with their communities, supporting artists everywhere and providing them with a platform to present their art creations across urban environments. Niio is creating a positive alternative to the digital advertising noise of modern cities.

For the complete list of winners please visit: www.niiolab.com/sino-announcement

The Sino x Niio Illumination Art Prozes was recognised by the judging panel of British travel magazine LUXlife as the “Best Creative Festive Lighting Program in Asia” in the 2019 Travel & Tourism Awards; and in the prestigious Astrid Awards, the campaign received the Gold Awards in the “Holiday Event” category and was further selected as one of the Grand Award winners.