artwork image: Alex Markwith, “Precession of Simulacra (Memento Mori)”, 2026, acrylic, paper and digital prints on canvas, 60x50cm
Alex Markwith Intersections
Opening reception
Wednesday 4 March 17.00 - 19.00
Exhibition on view
5.3.-28.3.2025
Malmitalo Galleria
Ala-Malmin tori 1, 00700 Helsinki
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Intersections is a solo exhibition by Alex Markwith exploring the tension and overlap between abstract and representational, digital and physical, structure and disintegration.
The paintings are layered and heavily textured, often showing signs of rupture, erosion and decay. For Markwith, the canvas is simultaneously a picture plane, an object and a site of action. Geometric grids suggest logic or rhythm, broken by gestural strokes, drips and occasional slashes through the surface. Objects emerge within or are transposed upon linear matrices; there is a hybridization of the human body, psychology and architecture.
Recurring images such as chess pieces and skulls address themes of power, conflict, mortality and transformation.
Markwith works between the canvas and the computer. For several years, the artist has experimented with feeding his own work to artificial intelligence to generate new images, which may then be further manipulated in Photoshop. These distorted, cyber-transmuted visuals are printed on paper and reincorporated into new paintings, where they are blended with, obscured by and buried under expressionistic brushwork. Paintings develop gradually, with chance, spontaneity and improvisation playing a central role at each stage.
The final work celebrates the hand-made nature of painting and highlights the role of artistic agency in a world increasingly ruled by algorithms. How does AI shape or distort artistic intent? What would it mean for AI to be truly creative? Markwith is engaged with broader philosophical questions of technology’s role in creative practice, including concerns of authorship, ethics and control in the digital age.