Zach Lieberman
10 LIGHTS
i GALLERY OSAKA is pleased to present 10 LIGHTS, a solo exhibition by Zach Lieberman, a New York-based artist, researcher, and educator, co-organized with clinic, a gallery based in Sangenjaya, Tokyo.
When I first encountered Lieberman’s work at clinic in January 2026, what struck me most was how intuitive and poetic computer-generated art could be. In works where light and color shift and take on unpredictable forms, I found a sense of freedom and delicacy that made it easy to forget the complex technology behind them.
For many years, Lieberman has used code to explore phenomena such as light, movement, and sound. His approach, which he calls “poetic computation,” treats programming not simply as a technical tool, but as a creative language for observing the world and discovering forms of expression yet to be explored. It is at the intersection of his sensibility as an artist, his curiosity as a researcher, and his openness as an educator that his unique style emerges.
What draws us to his work is not simply its technical innovation. Despite being created through complex computation, his work has an intimacy that speaks directly to our senses. His work moves between the digital and the physical, between rules and randomness, showing how technology can expand rather than limit our imagination.
For this exhibition, we have selected prints and video works from Lieberman’s drawings and animations exploring light, a theme he has pursued over the past decade. These works have been newly curated and arranged specifically for the space at i GALLERY OSAKA.
Having experienced his work in Tokyo, we felt a strong desire to bring it to Osaka. This was not simply about presenting the possibilities of digital art. Even without knowing the technology or knowledge behind the work, viewers can be moved by the colors and forms before them and discover something new through that experience. We wanted to share this openness, which we find so compelling in Zach’s work, with a wider audience.
We hope this exhibition will offer an opportunity not only to reflect on the relationship between technology and art, but also to rediscover the richness of our own ways of seeing, feeling, and imagining.
DATES
NOVEMBER 7 - DECEMBER 6, 2026
*WED-MON
OPENING RECEPTION
NOVEMBER 7 (SAT), 5-8PM
LOCATION
i GALLERY OSAKA
1F, 3-8-14, MINAMISENBA,
CHUO-KU, OSAKA-SHI,
OSAKA
ARTIST
Zach Lieberman
"In an age when AI is increasingly shaping the images we encounter every day, I feel we have become more inclined to question who made them, how they were made, and what lies behind their creation.
Zach Lieberman’s work, however, gently carries us beyond such doubts, drawing us into a world of pure visual delight.
I witnessed this happen time and again at his solo exhibition in Tokyo.
As a co-creator of openFrameworks and a faculty member at the MIT Media Lab, Lieberman is often regarded as a symbolic figure in digital expression.
Yet his artistic practice began with printmaking.
Having immersed himself in etching and lithography, I wonder if coding, too, was simply one of the tools that happened to find its way into his hands.
His daily sketching practice, which he has sustained for over a decade, and his attentive observation of the everyday strike me as deeply artisanal. I also sense a profound interest in and affection for people in the way he looks up to John Maeda as a mentor and devotes himself to teaching, as well as in his friendships with artists who have explored the body and perception, including Daito Manabe and members of EUPHRATES.
That same humanity lives on in his work: digital in form, yet gentle and emotionally resonant, with a touch of humor at times.
In a world of artistic expression and everyday life increasingly shaped by technologies that emerge one after another, Lieberman’s work gives me hope that we can continue to preserve what makes us human.
I am delighted that, following the Tokyo exhibition, audiences in Osaka will also have the opportunity to experience “Lights”. "
- clinic Kota Okukubo
Zach Lieberman
Born in New York in 1977, Zach Lieberman is an artist, researcher, and educator based in his hometown. He visualizes phenomena that unfold around us, such as movement, light, and sound, through code, creating installations, performances, and drawings using an approach he calls "poetic computation." He is a co-founder of the School for Poetic Computation and a professor at the MIT Media Lab, where he leads the Future Sketches group. His landmark project EyeWriter is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and he has received numerous international awards, including the Golden Nica in the Interactive Art category at Ars Electronica, as well as being selected for Time magazine's "Best Inventions."
Instagram: @zach.lieberman
Homepage: Link
clinic
clinic began in 2017 on the site of a former medical practice in Sangenjaya, Tokyo. Taking the memories latent within the body as its point of origin, it explores creative practices in which life pulses with vitality. Inheriting, along with its name, the memory of a place that once cared for mind and body, clinic edits the space between art and everyday life, opening practices that fit no single category to international dialogue.
Three minutes from Sangenjaya Station, at the end of a narrow path between two buildings along the Sakae-dori shopping street, stands a low-rise building some sixty years old, where clinic sits side by side with a cafe. It was once used by a doctor as his practice and residence, a place where, in his later years, he spent his days painting.
Instagram: @clinic_tokyoclinic
Homepage: Link