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You’ve in all probability by no means heard of Chester Charles, the Impressionist grasp whose turn-of-the-century work of queer life have been posthumously found in a Cleveland attic. And that’s as a result of Charles is the fanciful creation of ClownVamp, an nameless self-described homosexual A.I.-assisted artist.
Even so, a sweeping and long-overdue retrospective of Charles’s oeuvre was staged at Canvas 3.0, in partnership with Web3 platform Transient Labs and NFT market SuperRare, for sooner or later on June 21. Titled “The Misplaced Grand Grasp,” it provided the consolation of taking a look at works from essentially the most acquainted of genres and quiet unease with the historical past they reveal. Impressionist artworks are museum staples, however works evidencing the queer gaze are largely absent. This realization got here to ClownVamp by likelihood whereas making an attempt to conjure photos of a father and a son strolling within the woods. The A.I. mannequin glitched, providing two dads and a son as an alternative. So started ClownVamp’s journey to immediate an alternate artwork historical past.
![ClownVamp](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/06/6-1024x683.png)
ClownVamp, A Go to to the Dance, 1892 (2023). Courtesy of the artist.
“We reside in a socially constructed world, and historical past is an much more modified reflection of this warped sense of reality. A.I. permits us to interrupt, remix, and confront historical past, displaying what might’ve and may’ve been,” ClownVamp mentioned within the exhibition notes.
The 23 works ClownVamp introduced at his debut solo present contained visions from his fictive artist, every accompanied by textual content that laid naked Charles’s reflections and questions. As with every thorough venture involving picture mills, “The Misplaced Grand Grasp” is the product of appreciable trial and error, with ClownVamp finally discovering a method of mixing two picture teams with which the A.I. was acquainted: queer artwork and historic artwork.
The gathering actually hits most of the Impressionist beats. There’s the hazy white cliffs of Monet in Doves by the Sea, the depth of Van Gogh’s greens within the layered grass of The Softest Contact, and most maybe overtly, a scene of Degas ballerinas, one reworked by ClownVamp right into a joyful all-male brilliant pink affair.
“The Misplaced Grand Grasp” expands on Clownvamp’s first assortment, “The Fact,” which imagined the work of one other Impressionist artist within the wake of an alien invasion, and his wont of wielding machine intelligence to toy and dream up alternate histories.
“I imagine A.I. is a instrument,” he added, “that permits us to take our collective historical past and reimagine it.”
See extra photos from the collection beneath.
![ClownVamp](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/06/1-683x1024.png)
ClownVamp, “Doves by the Sea II, 1882”, 2023. Picture: courtesy of the artist.
![ClownVamp](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/06/5-1.png)
ClownVamp, “Two Sailors, 1885,” 2023. Picture: courtesy Picture: courtesy of the artist.
![](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/06/4-683x1024.png)
ClownVamp, “The Softest Contact 1888,” 2023. Picture: courtesy of the artist.
![ClownVamp](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/06/2-683x1024.png)
ClownVamp, “Matthew, 1887”, 2023. Picture: courtesy of the artist.
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