ARTIST vs AI: Montclair artist Charlie Spademan considers the challenge.

When considering what theme to present for his next gallery show, Spademan has opted to show giclée prints of his original oil paintings. “I’ve always had very mixed feelings about giclées,” says Spademan.  A giclée is a high-quality archival reproduction of an original artwork. “I understand their place, as most people can’t afford an original painting, and the reproductions are significantly less expensive. They are also appealing to the artist, as they can essentially sell their work multiple times. “I have been thinking about these high-quality reproductions that are not actually original artworks, and their relation to the sudden omnipresence of AI-generated artwork. I wanted to explore this in my show.” 

For this exhibition, Charlie is showing these reproductions of his own work, along with AI-generated images.  “I created prompts that described my own image and style in as much detail as I could. I then asked AI to create an artwork using ONLY the words of my prompt. At no point did I show AI an image of my work.  I find the results to be really interesting and unexpected.”

The exhibition presents Spademan’s work and the AI image side-by-side, along with the text prompt he used to create the image. Spademan says that the point of the show is to encourage thought about the artist/creator and the tools they use to create, and the gray line where originality ends.

An opening reception will be held at the Small Galleries of Lackawanna Station on Thursday Sept 17th, from 6-8 pm.  On the same evening at Lackawanna, there will be an opening reception for Montclair photographer Michael Schumacher, a book signing by noted Glenridge photographer Julia Gorton, and an open mic night.