AI Surrealism: 60 New NFTs in the World’s Biggest AI Art Show

Exquisite Workers and Superchief Gallery NFT expand the collection as a one-week “Moment”

7 min readNov 29, 2023

Hey there, art lovers! 🎨👋 We’re excited to share some incredible news with you!

In the summer of 2023, the AI Surrealism exhibition took New York by storm, thanks to a fantastic collaboration between Superchief Gallery NFT and the digitally-native collective Exquisite Workers. This event became the largest AI art show ever, featuring 100 talented AI artists. The buzz was real — over 120 collectors were engaged, and sales soared past 13 ETH in just 3 weeks! 🏆✨

Now, from November 28 to December 4, 2023, these trailblazers are back to keep the conversation about the future of AI art going strong. They’re releasing 60 fresh AI works on the Foundation marketplace as an exciting AI Surrealism “Moment.” 🔥 Don’t miss out on this next chapter in the world of AI creativity! 🎉

AI Surrealism Moment official flyer featuring “TAO” by Laurence Fuller

Artists such as Anna Condo, BLAC.ai, Nikita Panin, Speakingtomato, Laurence Fuller, Makeitrad, DEHISCENCE, Vadim Epstein, Moonchild, True Camellia, DVK the artist, and many more have put their artistic spin on the concept of AI Surrealism, shaping the new movement of art (full list at the end of the article).

From left to right: “Drifters Repose” by Stotkal; “Wings of identity” by Francien Krieg, “Labyrinth of thoughts” by June XenoCat

As the collective persists, collectors now have the opportunity to witness the evolution of these visionary creators since the last summer exhibition, exploring their latest works in the realm of AI Surrealism.

Featuring a diverse array of artistic perspectives, the artworks are up for a 7-day auction as open editions, priced at 0.01 ETH. Limited edition 1/1s are also available, starting at 0.05 ETH until complete sold-out.

From left to right: “Frozen Data” by Ai Machina; “Sign” by Powerjah

The AI Surrealism exhibition explores a wide spectrum of genres, encompassing AI Photography, AI Animation, AI art merged with digital illustration, AI Jewelry and Fashion design, and more.

Superchief Gallery NFT and Exquisite Workers aims to prompt contemplation on what the Surrealists might have created in the context of AI, blockchain, and virtual realities. Creators, serving as ambassadors of cultural legacies, contribute to the heritage of the future, inspired by the surrealist masters from the beginning of 20th century as well as the modern times.

From left to right: “corner horse” by Nikita Panin, “The Fall of the Damned” by Robinson St. George, “The Patchwork Girl” by Igor Tsaruk

Quotes from the AI Artists in the show

Joshua Larson

“AI image generation and surrealism go hand-in-hand perfectly, especially with the current state of the art. Breton referred to surrealism as a process where artists suppress their conscious mind and explore their subconscious to bypass any potential repressive states. AI image generation is a kind of psychic automatism that encompasses all of humanity. The consciousness of humanity is encoded and then repressed, and then the artist works to bypass that and draw a specific element of that consciousness out based on their own unique identity.”

DEHISCENCE

“I never really considered myself a surrealist before taking part in this exhibition. Historically surrealists often used more than one medium and experimented with subjects and mediums. In that way, I would fall under the Surrealist umbrella. I also think artists who use AI as part of their process, can automatically be labelled as surrealist. When one incorporates emerging technology into an art process they are going in somewhat blind as to what the output will be.”

From left to right: “Garden of Eden” by DEHISCENCE, “String Theory” by BLAC.ai

Anna Dart

“Whether in visual arts or literature, Surrealism delves into the raw, primal, and often repressed corners of our psyche, hushing the conventional. Recognized for its adaptability during times of social change, Surrealism provides an ideal foundation for exploring the integration of AI and artistic expression with its open-mindedness and experimentation. AI Surrealism marks the dawn of a new movement in collaboration with new technology, and we take pride in being the pioneers.”

Mielconejo:

“Surrealism is a constant state of being. It is the merge of the practical with the ethereal, the technology with the emotion, the form with the meaning. What, if not AI, can be more of a meaning of surrealism then?”

From left to right: “Surreal Brainwaves” by Marina Ahmadova; “Leap of faith” by CH

Jules Design

“AI brings something special to the table — a window to the collective subconscious, not just of one artist, but a collaboration between human imagination and the vast knowledge that AI has absorbed. This is a truly historical moment.”

Nuclear Samurai

“AI art is surreal in its very nature of what it is and what happens to create the images from a text prompt or an image init, there is this beautiful process where the result is the culmination of the model the AI has been trained on. So even the most mundane “photograph” style images can be very surreal, because you’re not looking at a real moment that ever happened. In these times to be on the forefront of this new medium as it becomes a style in and of its own, it feels like we are writing history in the art that we are producing.”

From left to right: “The Choir” by Julien Pacaud; “Non-dual” by Anna Condo

Roger Haus

“100 years after the surrealist movement championed the artistic avant-garde in Paris, we are living in a very interesting moment. I am sure that the Surrealists themselves of the time would enjoy it a lot. Is AI Art not a large exquisite corpse where ideas and concepts flow brutally in the algorithm that plays the role of a large collective unconscious?”

Jono K

“The AI often outputs something that feels like the thing we referenced, but also lacks something essential. The missing essence comes from the AI’s lack of lived experience, and gives it the surreal tone.”