Light: Rafaël Rozendaal
MoMA, New York
Through September 1, 2025
Quadrant, 2023
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Private collection
Pages, 2023
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Variation 39: Erick and Mara Calderon Collection
Implosion, 2023
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Collection the artist
The Museum of Modern Art presents Light: Rafaël Rozendaal, an immersive digital artwork, on view on the Hyundai Card Digital Wall in MoMA’s Agnes Gund Garden Lobby. This is the last chance to view this installation that presents a selection of Rozendaal’s vibrant animated works, each sampled for two to three minutes. Each work originates as a storyboard sketched on paper, which is then translated into code of only a few kilobytes (the exhibition's total file size is 135 KB). The resulting final form is an autonomous website powered by that algorithm, generating the animation in real time.
Rooms, 2024
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Collection the artist
Many Moment, 2018
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Collection Family Kolen
Rafaël Rozendaal (Dutch-Brazilian, born 1980) has been an innovator in the realm of Internet-based art since the early 2000s. He produces captivating animations that explore the aesthetic and conceptual possibilities of code, treating it as if it were paint. Rafaël Rozendaal has historically planned his websites to be robust enough to withstand the evolution of both software and hardware, and to be equally vivid at any screen resolution. The artworks adapt fluidly to any display, from a smartphone to the high-resolution LED screen in MoMA’s Agnes Gund Garden Lobby—which spans nearly 25 feet across. The result is a state of immersion so complete that it seems to merge with the physical world. Because Rafaël Rozendaal has chosen the Internet as his canvas, his works exist within the browser’s flat yet multidimensional digital landscape. For the same reason, these and all his works are accessible to all online through their URLs, even though they are held in private and public collections.
Photomontage of the Gund Lobby featuring Flood, 2023
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Private collection
Photomontage of the Gund Lobby featuring
Twisting and Turning, 2021
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Collection Russell Smith
Photomontage of the Gund Lobby featuring Pages, 2023
Digital animation using generative algorithm
Variation 39: Erick and Mara Calderon Collection
“I imagine we will live in a world where there is no difference between a screen and any other surface,” said Rafaël Rozendaal. “I always wanted to make work that could be seen by anyone, anywhere, anytime. I wanted to create work that gives the viewer a feeling of possibility.”“Rafaël’s digital artworks are lean, accessible, indestructible. They bend and adapt and never break. They are the ultimate example of the power that comes from lightness” says Paola Antonelli.
Light: Rafaël Rozendaal is organized by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Director, Research and Development, and Amanda Forment, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design.
The Hyundai Card Digital Wall is a space for digital works and emerging technologies by contemporary artists.
MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, New York City
