Travess Smalley
Travess Smalley (1986) is an American artist based in Providence, Rhode Island, and is part of a new generation of artists who grew up immersed in digital technology. Smalley’s practice bridges the digital and physical worlds: he creates artworks through a dynamic process of digital image-making, manual intervention, and re-digitization. Using custom software, scanners, and image-editing tools, Smalley generates digital compositions which he prints out, manipulates by hand—cutting, collaging, drawing—and then scans back into the computer to continue the cycle. This iterative process results in vibrant, layered works that blur the boundaries between computer-generated and handmade art.
Smalley’s oeuvre includes digital prints, videos, installations, and artist books. His work explores the materiality of digital images and the interplay between randomness and control, often inspired by the aesthetics of painting, early computer graphics, and the history of abstraction. He is fascinated by the transformation of images as they move between digital and physical states, and by the question of what it means to make art in an era where images circulate freely and endlessly online.
Although Smalley is best known for his experimental digital prints, he sees no hierarchy between his digital and physical works: for him, the act of making and remaking images—regardless of the medium—is central. Smalley’s art has been exhibited internationally, and he is recognized as a key figure in the field of contemporary digital and generative art. His innovative approach offers visitors a fresh perspective on how technology and traditional art practices can inform and enrich each other.
Themes and Inspiration
Travess Smalley’s work is driven by fundamental questions about the nature and circulation of images in the digital age, such as “What is an image?” and “How do images circulate in our digital culture?” He is deeply interested in how digital and physical processes interact, often using a feedback loop that moves between computer-generated imagery and hands-on manipulation. This approach allows him to explore the boundaries between representation and abstraction, intention and accident, and the digital and the tangible.
Smalley draws inspiration from a wide range of sources. His references include modern painting, 1990s digital culture, and the contemporary post-internet art scene7. He is also influenced by artists and movements that embrace chance and generative processes, such as Dada, Fluxus, and pioneers of algorithmic art like Harold Cohen (creator of AARON), as well as conceptual artists who investigate the relationship between art and text. Smalley’s own practice incorporates custom scripts and algorithms, using randomness and rules to generate images that are neither entirely controlled nor completely random. He celebrates repetition, variation, and the emergence of new forms from the interplay of chance and structure5.
His process-oriented method gives his art a playful and intuitive character, where imperfections, materiality, and the tactile qualities of the medium play a central role67. Smalley values the improvisational and open-ended nature of his work, often leaving images “unfinished” to allow for ongoing transformation and interpretation5. This results in art that is both visually immediate and conceptually rich, inviting viewers to reconsider the status of images in a world shaped by both digital technology and traditional craft.
Why Travess?
Travess Smalley offers a fresh perspective on digital art by merging digital and physical techniques into surprising, hybrid images. His work demonstrates that digital art doesn’t have to exist solely on screens but can also be a tangible, material experience. For those curious about the boundaries between technology and traditional art, Smalley is a fascinating artist to discover.
Travess Smalley’s work has been exhibited at leading institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Kunsthal Rotterdam, International Center of Photography (New York), MacKenzie Art Gallery (Canada), La Galerie, centre d’art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec (France), Foxy Production (New York), and Peter Freeman Inc. (New York)
Website
https://www.travesssmalley.com/
Interviews
