My gallery show got pulled because of a single AI debate

Last Friday, a small gallery in Portland was set to show my digital series 'Urban Echoes' for a full week. The day before opening, the owner called and said they were dropping me because my work uses some AI upscaling tools in the process. He said a board member saw a post about it online and called it 'not real art.' I spent over 200 hours painting those pieces by hand first. Now I'm stuck with prints and nowhere to show them. Has a tool you use ever gotten your work rejected like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

granthunt3mo ago

Tools are just tools... your hand-painted work is still the real art.

blairc902mo ago

Wait, your traditional art teacher actually tried digital? That's wild to me. My old painting teacher would have lost his mind at the idea. He called Photoshop "cheating" and made us grind for hours just to mix the right gray. The fact that yours switched sides feels like seeing a ghost.

james3173mo ago

Totally get what you're saying @granthunt. I felt the same way until I tried digital painting and realized the skill is in the vision, not the brush. The tool just changes how you get there.

sean_green443mo ago

Honestly felt the same until my traditional art teacher tried digital. The vision is what matters, not how you get it on the canvas.