Few artists can deal with generative code for over 25 years, but Harvey Rayner is one of those people. As a veteran of the generative art world, Rayner's work is both bold and ethereal.
His work features blocky geometric shapes and striking contrasts, balanced with soft pastel gem tones. This combination makes his works feel light yet powerful, somewhat like a film negative caught between light and shadow.
Rayner's 'Fontana' series was first generated on Art Blocks in 2022. It captures the flowing motion of fountains abstractly using generative code and represents it with static elements. Each output is generated from a carefully curated color palette.
In the description of this series, Rayner states that these tones are inspired by early 20th-century art and design. Looking at the influences from that era, such as Fauvism, Futurism, and Abstract Expressionism, it's easy to spot these clues.
Meanwhile, Rayner's 'Velum' attempts to address later influences—perhaps more explicitly. He describes this series as 'stealing' mid-20th century art movements and seeing what happens when they are inserted into today’s algorithms. This approach dislocates the works from their context, stripping them of their meaning and leaving us with a visual legacy to interpret.
During the Marfa Art Blocks weekend event, we spoke with Rayner at Thunderbird Marfa. We discussed his journey into the realm of generative art (which began in the 1990s), the creative process behind his works, and how he has established himself in the rapidly evolving digital space.
Note: This record has been edited for brevity and clarity.
OpenSea: What initially attracted you to the world of generative art?
Harvey Rayner: I'm clearly drawn to this space because it's a place where I can sell works I've created over the long term that didn't have a market. So my first project was 'Photon's Dream' in collaboration with Art Blocks, followed by 'Fontana.'
That was a major springboard in my career. The first time I really explored generative art was by creating works with geometric shapes. I've been calling it 'geometric media' for about 15 years now, and it got so complex that it took me a long time to produce manually.
So I started writing software to explore these geometric ideas in new ways and to investigate the complexity I wanted to research. But the only way was to use code. At that time, I hadn't even named it—we didn't call it generative art; that term didn't really exist.
I just feel like I'm doing something strange. I'm not trying to sell it; I don't think it has a market. It's just my own deep exploration of geometry. Yes, I am actually studying a class of objects called quasicrystals.
OpenSea: Can you tell us what tools or platforms you use?
Harvey Rayner: I don't use external libraries; I write code in JavaScript. I'm one of the few artists using SVG. I was involved from the beginning when the technology wasn't even compatible with most mainstream browsers, and I built a lot of my own libraries.
I don't use p5.js or anything like that. Now, all of this has developed over the past 15 years, and I've slowly found a way to work and build my own tools. I also use CorelDRAW to enrich the content—I’ve always enjoyed it.
In terms of platforms, I first joined Art Blocks, then Bright Moments, and I've sold works at places like Sotheby's and Christie's. Along the way, I've worked with many companies, but now I'm more focused on doing things independently, so I no longer rely on platforms and their limitations.
I collaborate with some people who help me with promotion and things like that, but I really enjoy living independently. I like doing my own thing, and I don't like others breathing down my neck.
OpenSea: What practices or techniques help you enter a creative flow state?
Harvey Rayner: Meditation. I spend a lot of time in retreats and have personal practices. I think this has influenced my work—especially my early works from about 20 years ago. It's hard to say exactly how meditation affects my art; I don't directly explore it through art, but it does manifest in some way.
If I spend months looking inward, some of those insights might manifest in my later works, but my works are not particularly conceptual. First and foremost, I am a painter.
OpenSea: When you start creating new works, what is usually your starting point? Is it an idea, an algorithm, or a visual concept?
Harvey Rayner: I've always liked building things with my hands, so I take a very compositional approach to art. I don't get too caught up in concepts; I do write some articles about my work and try to connect it with the past, especially with the classics of 20th-century art, but I wouldn't classify myself as a conceptual artist.
The way these influences appear in my work is more intuitive and visceral; it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how they manifest.
When I was still in art school, I would spend two hours every morning poring over art books, spending all my money on them. That was in the 1990s, and I would look at some timeless things, like composition. I didn't need to understand what the artists were thinking at the time; in a way, I was attracted to the timeless fundamental qualities.
For example, in the project 'Fontana' that I collaborated on with Art Blocks, some parts feel like expressing a certain movement through very static elements. It reminds me of what futurists did last century, so I started re-examining that movement and feeding it back into my own visual language. This is often how I work.
I would start a project, and it would remind me of something. For example, 'Vellum' had these very gestural components. I was exploring Abstract Expressionism at the time, but I combined it with a Pop Art aesthetic—very bold outlines that flattened the image. It's a bit like putting together two visual languages from different movements.
It's not the concepts behind those movements; it's just pure visual language. I compress them all together and explore the results using a very algorithmic approach.
OpenSea: Do you find yourself constantly revising or adjusting your work, or have you reached a clear stopping point?
Harvey Rayner: I revisit code because I build it in a very modular way. I often revisit algorithms, but after so much practice, I've developed a sense of when something is finished. You might overwork it; over the years, I've learned to recognize when I've reached that point, but I will continue to push.
I might spend three months on a project, but I always develop several projects simultaneously, so I can step away, come back, and realize if I’ve started overworking. But to be honest, I usually just know when it's finished; it's hard to explain, but when I've fully expressed the core idea of the algorithm, I get that feeling.
After that, continuing to push it feels like diminishing returns; overworking can actually ruin a piece. It's similar to painting—you can overpaint and lose vitality, and the piece becomes labored and exhausted. But when I look at the screen, almost every output is surprising, and I know I did something right; the excitement is still there.
OpenSea: As someone working with evolving technology, what are your thoughts on the future of generative art? Are you optimistic or concerned?
Harvey Rayner: For me, this is a very exciting time. I think creating art is important because we are in one of those rare moments in history. The space I call 'imaginable art' is expanding rapidly. If you look back 10 years, you can see the art being created then and say it could have been conceived 50 years ago—especially in terms of painting and conceptual art.
For example, we had Duchamp's ready-mades in 1916, but now, looking at what generative art and AI art are doing, it's hard to imagine what the future will look like. I don't know where we are on the curve or if we have already reached the peak of how big this space can get, but personally, I cannot predict where we will be in three years, and that's what makes it exciting.
If I could predict what would happen next year, I would feel like I'm in the wrong field, using the wrong medium and tools. It's this uncertainty that makes things exciting.
However, one trend I see is that generative art is becoming more personalized, responding more sensitively to biometrics and the environment, and we can also see the rise of these 'blue-chip' type works—not just 'blue-chip,' but art that is more meaningful to the entire culture, not just to individuals.
Because it can aggregate a lot of data from all these individual works and then say, 'Well, this is what many people like,' or 'This is the behavior that these works depend on,' and then it can concretize that data into these unique or epic works that tell the story of human behavior at a certain moment.
You know, I want to create a unique piece, just like the marfaMESH project I did last year. This is an event-driven generative art piece where people interacted with the lanyard using their phones. We created an app that recorded interactions and captured data such as geolocation and photos taken by people, all of which was input into this personalized artwork as a memento of their experiences there.
People really became dependent on them and still hold on to them, but you can leverage all this data to create a unique piece of art that represents everyone's experience gained through the app at the event. I think the value of that piece might be more like a blue-chip artwork.
Yes, there are two trends, related trends, but besides that, I like the fact that I can't predict what will happen next.
OpenSea: Where can people find you and your work?
Harvey Rayner: My personal website is under construction, but it will be online soon, and you can contact me.
OpenSea: Thank you very much for your time today.
Harvey Rayner: Yes, thank you!
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