Info
Aaron Penne (b. 1988, Chico, California) is an artist and engineer working with systems in Seattle, Washington. He has been creating generative artwork with code since 2018 and serves as Director of Engineering at Art Blocks. In 2018, he founded the Generative Artists Club, a private community of approximately 400 generative artists sharing techniques, critiquing work, and supporting each other. His work explores the space between algorithmic and organic, balancing machine precision with human touch to create fluid, painterly forms from hard-edge digital artifacts.
Penne holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from San Diego State University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC San Diego, where he first encountered Harold Cohen's pioneering work. He is the first Art Blocks artist to be featured across Curated, Playground, and Factory platforms.
Selected Works
- Apparitions (Art Blocks Curated, 2021) - 1,500 generative works exploring the space between algorithmic and organic
- Return (Art Blocks Playground, 2021) - 300 meditations on cyclical change and the beauty of iteration
- Rituals-Venice with Boreta (Art Blocks Presents, 2021) - 1,000 infinite audiovisual works, Lumen Prize NFT Award winner
- Within/Without (Art Blocks Factory) - Instructions that generate instructions, tracing lineage from Sol LeWitt to Autoglyphs
- Searching Still (Verse, 2023) - Observations of elusive sensations: memory, longing, search
- Catalina (2023) - [Horizon] and [Moon] diptych, featured at Sotheby's
- ZENTRUM (2023) - Translation of Herbert W. Franke's 1982 program for blockchain
Awards
- Lumen Prize for Art and Technology NFT Award (2022) - Inaugural award, with Boreta for Rituals-Venice
- Top 50 NFT Artists Globally (2021)
Collections
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany
- Seattle NFT Museum, Washington
Selected Exhibitions
- Sotheby's Lumen Prize Anniversary Auction, New York (2024)
- Generative Art Summit, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2024)
- N=12, Feral File, Curated by Aaron Penne (2023)
- Art Dubai, Galloire, Dubai (2023)
- Generative Abstraction and Beyond, Verse (2023)
- The NFT Award, Gazelli Art House, London (2022)
- Bright Moments, Berlin, New York, Venice Beach (2021-2022)
- A.R.E., POCKO Gallery, London (2021)
- A.R.E. Generative Hut Show, ZÖNOTÉKA Gallery, Berlin (2021)
- ArtScience Museum, Singapore
- Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany
- Seattle NFT Museum, Seattle
Press
- Right Click Save: The Generative Symphony of Aaron Penne and Boreta
- ArtyNFT Interview
- Art Blocks with Jeff Davis
- AdaFruit DigitalFruit