“I really hope that generative art will land in a place one day where it’s taught in the art history books.”
Emily Xie is a visual artist and ex-software engineer. Her rich digital compositions combine her sharp creative eye and passion for art history with her deep knowledge of computer science. What's so striking about her work is just how textural it is. She brings together many different patterns and surfaces inspired by tangible forms of media like textiles, collage and embroidery. "When you're using code to mimic something that's deeply material and deeply textural, I think that's pretty fascinating," she says. And the results are transfixing. Her artworks perfectly balance opposing forces – randomness and control, structure and fluidity, abstraction and representation.
Despite her success in the art world and NFT space, Xie never expected to become a full-time artist. "Coming from an immigrant family meant that I carried a lot of the expectations that came of that. So I pursued a more practical path, which for me came in the form of software engineering." But art had always been a part of Xie's life. As a student at Havard, she even majored in Art History and Architecture. Ultimately, Xie had the best of both worlds: art and technology. Then, in 2021, a friend told Xie about NFTs. "It dawned on me that my favourite hobby could actually become my career", she later reflected. Since then, Xie has become a renowned generative artist with a dedicated collector community.
