About Matt DesLauriers
Matt DesLauriers is a Toronto-born artist based in London who makes his work by writing software. He studied film and media at Queen's University and has written code since his teens. Before his Art Blocks releases he made interactive installations, one of them shown at the Louvre in 2016. He also publishes open source tools such as canvas-sketch, which he uses to make his own work.
Subscapes, his first Art Blocks project, came out in 2021: landscapes drawn by one algorithm from a single seed per token. Meridian followed that September with 1,000 stratified landforms built from small strokes of colour, and a quarter of its primary sales went to the Processing Foundation. Vetro Editions later published a book on the series, designed by monopo London. Pieces from both series have appeared in Sotheby's sales.
Bright Moments gave FOLIO a solo show in London in 2022. In Filigree (2024), shown by The Disruptive Gallery, AI image models only supply colour and tone while his own code sets the composition. He also draws with pen plotters, and his hachure plots appeared at Paris Photo in 2023. Sales of the open source Bitframes fund Generative, a documentary on the history of generative art.
His work has been shown at Kunsthalle Zürich, MoCA Taipei, Phillips in London and the V&A. LACMA received Meridian #547 in 2023 as part of a gift from the collector Cozomo de' Medici, and in 2026 he gave the V&A prints of two more Meridian works. In 2021 he made Wayfinder, a generative poetry game, with the National Film Board of Canada.
Notable works
In museum collections
V&ALACMA
Top sales
- Meridian #2872021200 ETH (about $678K)
- Meridian #7382021200 ETH (about $600K)
- Meridian #702021175 ETH (about $525K)
- Meridian #6242021145 ETH (about $491K)
- Meridian #684202190 ETH (about $403K)
- Meridian #171202180 ETH (about $361K)
Exhibitions
- 2026Degrees of Disruption (Meridian)Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- 2025Patterns of Entanglement, an interactive exhibitionNEORT++, Tokyo
- 2024Solo show: FiligreeThe Disruptive Gallery, London
- 2024Pattern Language, an interactive exhibitionBalestrand, Norway
- 2023
Recognition
- 2026Finalist, Lumen Prize, for Pattern LanguageLumen Prize
- 2021
- 2021
- 2021CSS Design Awards, for WayfinderCSS Design Awards
- 2018
Collaborations
- 2024Sierra, a print and digital workAvant Arte
- 2022Meridian, a 240-page book on the series, designed by monopo LondonVetro Editions and monopo London
- 2021Wayfinder, a generative poetry game for the webNational Film Board of Canada
- 2021GitHub Mural ProjectGitHub
- 2019The Art of CybersecurityTrend Micro
Press & resources
Matt DesLauriers on a Generative WorldLe Random · 2024
Matt DesLauriers on Challenging the ImageLe Random · 2024- Glitch Gallery opens two new generative art exhibitionsBig Bend Sentinel · 2023
Art Made of Code: monopo london on the design of Matt DesLauriers' debut bookCreative Boom · 2023- LACMA Acquires 22 Generative Art NFTsCool Hunting · 2023
Milestones
- 2021
- 2021Wayfinder, a generative poetry game, launches with the National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of Canada
- 2021
- 2022Vetro Editions publishes Meridian, his first bookVetro Editions
- 2024