About
David Young is an artist investigating how emerging technologies shape and constrain human perception. Working with AI and quantum computing, he creates images that expose the assumptions embedded in technological innovation. Drawing on decades of experience with advanced computation, Young treats code and algorithms as materials for critical inquiry rather than tools for spectacle. His work challenges the technological monoculture and questions the inevitability of “the new,” inviting viewers to reconsider the narratives driving innovation and imagine more humane, diverse technological futures — where aesthetic experience and human consciousness take center stage rather than optimization and scale.
Young is a member of darktaxa-project, an experimental platform exploring the evolving boundaries of photography and digital imaging techniques.
Young’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections including Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, and the GENAP Collection in Zürich. His work has been featured in numerous publications including Artforum magazine, and on the covers of Espace Art Actuel and IEEE Computer Graphics magazines. He holds a master’s degree in visual studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has taught at ArtCenter College of Design and Parsons School of Design.
David lives and works in New York.
CV
News
December 2 - 5, 2025
Talk | Entangled Visions, Oslo, Norway
Talk: “Art as Gateway: Quantum without Expertise.” Entangled Visions, Oslo Metropolitan University.
October 23 - 24, 2025
Talk | Beyond Binary, Brussels, Belgium
Talk: “The Illusion of Control.” Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts.
September 2025
Press | Artnet News
Work featured in “Inside the Brave New World of Quantum Art: ‘Consciousness Is Too Limited.’“
link.
December 3 - 8, 2024
Art Fair | Untitled, Miami, USA
Work exhibited by Kate Vass Galerie.
link
December 2024
Press | OSMOS Magazine
Featured in issue #27 (Fall/Winter 2025) for the article “David Young: Coded Optimism.”
link.
November 7 - 10, 2024
Group Exhibition | From Code to Imagery
Galerie Joseph, Paris, France
Works by: Hein Gravenhorst, Kevin Abosch, David Young, and Ganbrood
Curated by: Georg Bak and Eleonora Brizi
link
July 28 - October 27, 2024
Group Exhibition | Welt anschauen (Viewing the World)
Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz, Chemnitz, Germany
link.
With works by: Joachim Blank, Banz & Bowinkel, Julius Brauckmann, Nancy Burson, darktaxa-projekt: the Chemnitz constellation (Ralf Brueck, Raphael Brunk, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Philipp Goldbach, Alex Grein, Beate Gütschow, Spiros Hadjidjanos, Fabian Hesse & Mitra Wakil, Kristina Lenz & Alex Simon Klug, Achim Mohné, Johannes Post, Michael Reisch, Anna Ridler, Aaron Scheer, Björn Siebert, David Young), Katarína Dubovská, Jörg Sasse, Corinna Schnitt, Juergen Staack, Katja Stuke
June 2024
Press | Foam Magazine
Work featured in issue #66 (Summer 2024) for the article “From Innovation to Art: The History of AI Images.”
link.
May 17 - June 23, 2024
Group Exhibition | darktaxa-project: phtoograify
Dusseldorf Photo+ in Dusseldorf, Germany
With works by: Ralf Brueck, Raphael Brunk, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Philipp Goldbach, Alex Grein, Spiros Hadjijanos, Fabian Hesse & Mitra Wakil, Kristina Lenz & Alex Simon Klug, Achim Mohné, Johannes Post, Michael Reisch, Anna Ridler, Aaron Scheer, Björn Siebert, David Young
link
Lecture and panel-discussion, about photography and artificial intelligence: June 15, with guest Roland Meyer and darktaxa-project-artists: Heather Dewey Hagborg, Michael Reisch, David Young
May 1 - May 31, 2024
Public Display | Clear Channel, Belgium
Artcrush Gallery
Work displayed in over 200 cities in Belgium on public digital signage.
May 2024
Press | European Photography
Work and writing featured in issue #115 (Summer 2024).
link
April 12 - May 11, 2024
Group Exhibition | SHIFT + CTRL
Falko Alexander, Cologne, Germany
link
With works by: Hyperweird Kids, Antonia Gruber, Kristina Lenz & Alex Simon Klug, Johannes Post, Michael Reisch, David Young
January 14 - March 3, 2024
Group Exhibition | Parallel Time and Space: Experience, Inclusivity, Exploration
The 6th Art and Science International Exhibition
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
link
2023
November 23, 2023 - February 11, 2024
Group Exhibition | darktaxa-project: the Regensburg constellation
International Photofestival, Regensburg, Germany.
link
January 17 - 21, 2024
Art Fair | Noise, Istabul
Work exhibited by Kate Vass Galerie.
link
August 8, 2023
Interview | ZDF TV
Interview on ZDF’s “Heute Journal” for the segment “Does artificial intelligence threaten art?”
June 2023
Press | Artforum
Work featured in a two-page spread in the Summer 2023 issue of Artforum magazine.
link
January 10, 2023
Interview | NPR 1A
Featured guest on NPR’s “Studio 1A” for the episode “Art and Artificial Intelligence.”
link
2022
December 2022
Book | Crypto Art - Begins
One of 50 artists included in this book.
Published by Rizzoli.
link
November 5, 2022 - January 7, 2023
Duo Exhibition | Echo Chambers
Collaboration with Susan Yelavich
1053 Gallery, Fleischmanns, NY
link
November 11 - 13, 2022
Art Fair | CADAF, New York
Web3 Gallery, New York
Panel discussion on the Rizzoli book “CryptoArt Begins.”
link
October 13, 2022
Solo Exhibition | Quantum Drawings
Verse, online
Curator: Christina Scheublein
link
July 21 - October 16, 2022
Group Exhibition | Deutscher Kaviar (“German Caviar”)
Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany
Artist list (partial):
Lewis Baltz, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Rudolf Bonvie, Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Walther Dahn, Felix Droese, Achim Duchow, Ceal Floyer, Andreas Gursky, Jürken Klauke, Astrid Klein, Christof Kohlhöfer, Sigmar Polke, Timm Rautert, Michael Reisch, Ulrike Rosenbach, Katharina Sieverding, Heidi Specker, Thomas Struth, Ilona & Wolfgang Weber, Herbert Wentscher, Nicole Wermers and others
link
September 15 - 30, 2022
Group Exhibition | Digital Landscapes
Unpaired Gallery, Zug, Switzerland
link
May 13 - 22, 2022
Group Exhibition | darktaxa-project: The Düsseldorf Constellation
Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
This pop-up exhibition and book presentation was part of the Düsseldorf Photo+ Biennale
link
April 28 - May 1, 2022
Art Fair | India Art Fair, Delhi
Exhibited by Terrain.art
link
April 20, 2022
Interview | JPEG2000
Featured on episode 2 of the podcast JPEG2000, discussing work with artificial intelligence.
link
March 11 - April 18, 2022
Group Exhibition | Visual Realities - The Computation of Photography
AFF Galerie, Berlin, Germany
link
March 5 - April 10, 2022
Work included in “The Wood for the Trees” at Hawk & Hive, Andes, NY.
January 2022
Work featured in the 1,000-page book “noPublication” (Walther König) as part of darktaxa project.
December 2, 2021 - January 31, 2022
Work exhibited at Rechnender Raum, New York.
2022
November 18, 2021
Interview with UC Santa Cruz.
November 3 - December 18, 2021
Work included in “Future Conditional” at GESTE, Paris. Talk on November 21.
September 24 - 26, 2021
Work included in “Terrain Offline” at Bikaner House, Delhi.
September 14 - 18, 2021
Work included in “Much of a muchness, blurring the lines” at the International Conference on Computational Creativity.
September 10 - 25, 2021
Work included in “NFTism: No Fear in Trying,” the launch exhibition of Institut, London.
July 31 - August 20, 2021
Work included in “Intertwined Intelligences” at Terrain.art, Delhi.
July 31 - September 5, 2021
Solo exhibition “Liminal” at Hawk & Hive, Andes, NY. Exhibition essay.
June 17, 2021
Work exhibited by Kate Vass Galerie and Elementum at CADAF Paris.
May 5, 2021
Work included in “NFT Now” at Techspressionism.
April 29, 2021
Work included in “Telephone Paintings” at Anteism, Montreal.
February 8, 2021
Work included in “Abstract Art in the Age of New Media” at Museum of Contemporary Digital Art. Panel: Creating Abstract Work in the Digital Age (March 1).
October 8, 2020
Work included in “Art For Space” at Museum of Contemporary Digital Art.
July 1, 2020
Work featured on the cover of IEEE Computer Graphics, July/August issue.
June 25, 2019
Work exhibited by Kate Vass Galerie and NOVUS Projects at CADAF Online.
April 14, 2020
Interview with MoCAD’s Serena Tabacchi.
February 7, 2020
Work included in “darktaxa-project: the Frankfurt-constellation” at Schierke Seinecke Gallery, Frankfurt.
January 25, 2020
Work featured on the cover of Espace magazine, Winter 2020 issue.
December 10, 2019
Four-page feature in DU Magazine, Dec/Jan issue.
December 5, 2019
Work exhibited by Kate Vass Galerie at CADAF Miami. Panel: The Work of Art in the Age of Machine Learning (December 8).
November 11, 2019
Work included in “Playing Against the Machine” at 28 Vignon Street.
November 1, 2019
Sculptural Little AI work included in “La Vérité Déguisée (The Truth in Disguise)” at GESTE Paris. Talk on November 30.
November, 2019
Work included in “Augmenting Creativity - Decoding AI and Generative Art” at Nanjing University, China. More info.
October 8, 2019
Interview with Michael Reisch for darktaxa-project.
September 17, 2019
Essay: “Tabula Rasa” — exploring emotions, romanticism, materiality, and the sublime of AI and art. Also on Artnome with a foreword by Jason Bailey.
June 22, 2019
16 flower images featured in the ISEA2019 Special Exhibition at the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea.
May 29, 2019
Work included in “Automat und Mensch (Man and Machine)” at Kate Vass Galerie, Zürich. See essay: Giving Generative Art Its Due.
May 11, 2019
Included in the inaugural set of artists on Elementum (originally NOOW.art).
May 11, 2019
Work included in the Ethereal Charity Auction at the Ethereal Summit, benefiting The Foundation for Art & Blockchain.
May 5, 2019
Panel: Artificial Intelligence + Generative Art at CADAF, New York.
December 8, 2018
Four images in the Machine Learning for Creativity and Design Gallery at NeurIPS 2018.
November 9, 2018
Invited to SuperRare.co; named pick of the week.
November 5, 2018
Work included in “Binary/Non-Binary” at GESTE Paris. Jury-selected image: “Learning Nature (b38,2023,13).”
October 23, 2018
Essay: “Little AI” — exploring whether aesthetic experiences can give a fresh start to how we think about AI.
October 20, 2018
New website launched. (Built with Jekyll.)
