Vera Molnar and Harm Van Den Dorpel - 1% of Disorder: New York

Lohaus Sominsky is pleased to present 1% of Disorder , an exhibition presenting the works of Vera Molnar and Harm van den Dorpel. The works in the exhibition create a continuous dialogue between the two artists: Vera Molnar, a Hungarian-French artist and true pioneer of computer art, the first woman to use technology in her works, and Harm van den Dorpel, a Berlin-based Dutch artist with a background in artificial intelligence.

Vera Molnar graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest and later moved to Paris. (In 1960, she co-founded the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) together with her husband, Julio Le Parc, François Morellet, and others. Although the pair left the group shortly after its founding, Molnár continued to research and experiment with plastic elements, formal reduction, and visual simplicity.

In 1968, the artist took the opportunity to work with a computer, which at the time did not have a screen, and from that moment on, she continued using technology in the production of her works. Since screens did not yet exist, artists would create codes and algorithms and use the computer’s output to determine what to put on paper. Molnar believed that an image could be broken down into elements that would form a certain order, and according to the artist, by diminishing disorder, the beauty of the plastic elements would increase. However, the artist believed “a small amount of disorder is necessary… one percent, for example.”

The artist continued to work until she passed away in 2023, at the age of 99. In 2024, a retrospective exhibition of her work was inaugurated at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. She had contributed to the preparation of this exhibition, and even though she did not live to see it come to life, Molnar’s presence was felt.

Harm van den Dorpel is a contemporary artist who, before graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, studied artificial intelligence. Van den Dorpel works across different media, including works on paper, sculpture, computer-generated graphics, and software development, enabling his practice to evolve through research continuously. His works are grounded in historical research as well as technological innovation. His practice examines the instability of the digital medium, producing an interaction between human influence and digital systems. Van den Dorpel’s works on paper are produced using algorithms and a plotter, which, by executing the output provided by the artist, generate unique and unrepeatable results. Like Molnar, van den Dorpel is guided by the logic of formulas and rules.

While his predecessor combined manual processes with computer output, leaving space for human imperfection, van den Dorpel embraces this legacy by using the same algorithm as Molnar, continuing the dialogue with the late artist. He reengineers Molnar’s algorithm and places it on the blockchain, transforming it into a generative system. In doing so, he creates an infinite loop of unique possibilities, where each iteration becomes both a continuation of her logic.

The similarities between the two are evident; their works are characterized by apparent randomness and subtle imperfections, embraced as part of human nature. Their practices revolve around a respect for structures invisible to the human eye and the thoughtful processes that define them.

Works by both artists are held in important institutional collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, ZKM Karlsruhe, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.