Alessandro Giannì on Painting, AI, and His Chinese Residencies

Italian artist Alessandro Giannì (Rome, 1989) merges traditional painting with artificial intelligence, using his own AI system Vasari alongside other generative tools. His recent exhibition 'Multiple Unrealities' at Tang Contemporary Art in Hong Kong explored image fragmentation as a generative act. In 2024, he represented Italian painting at 'The Power of Painting' at ENNOVA Art Museum in Langfang, alongside Marlene Dumas, Anish Kapoor, Fang Lijun, and Zhang Xiao Gang, presenting his large-format work 'Maeternity' (2015). A residency at the 20th Century Museum in Shanghai, curated by NoName Studio founder Carlo Maria Rossi, culminated in the solo show 'Shining Within' at 78 space, a historic villa connected to MAM Shanghai, supported by the Italian Consulate and Istituto Italiano di Cultura. For this cycle, Giannì engaged with the gaze of Chinese tradition, referencing Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) through AI-generated images emulating his style. Giannì views AI as a contemporary tool akin to perspective or photography, emphasizing that the final painting remains his handcrafted work. He noted the Asian public's openness and different sensibility, which he finds intriguing yet hard to decipher.