This September 2026, Machine Arts Gallery welcomes pioneering computer artist, programmer, and American Algorist Mark Wilson for an exhibition spanning more than four decades of generative art.
Opening Friday, September 4, 6–8 PM
Mark Wilson will be present for the opening.
Opening Friday, September 4, from 6–8 PM, with Wilson in attendance, the exhibition will feature more than 20 of Wilson’s prints, alongside five new pen plotter drawings, marking his return to the plotter as an artistic medium for the first time since the early 1990s.
For Machine Arts Gallery, having Mark Wilson here is particularly significant. Wilson is one of the original American Algorists, a small group of artists who pioneered algorithmic and computer-generated art decades before “generative art” became a familiar term. These artists were writing their own software and working with early computers and pen plotters at a time when making art with a computer was largely dismissed by the traditional art world.
Wilson began making computer art in 1980 after purchasing a Texas Instruments home computer and teaching himself to program. He soon began working with pen plotters, using machines built for engineering and architectural drawings to create dense, complex works of art.
“The art world in those days was very contemptuous of anything made with a computer,” Wilson recalled. “They were not interested. And so I said ‘to hell with them.’”
By the 1990s, Wilson had transitioned from pen plotters to digital printing, while continuing to develop the generative systems behind his work.
We interviewed Mark about his career, process, and early experiments with computer art for the first issue of Machine Arts Magazine. You can find the full interview in Issue 1, or read it online.
The September exhibition at Machine Arts Gallery brings different periods of Wilson’s practice together. More than 20 prints will offer a look at the intricate geometric systems, algorithmic variation, and extraordinary density that have come to characterize his work.
But the exhibition also marks a return.
For the first time since the early 1990s, Wilson has created a new group of works with a pen plotter. Five new plotted drawings will be exhibited alongside his printed work, returning Wilson to a machine and process that played a central role in the development of his artistic practice more than four decades ago.
As Wilson puts it: “You have to trust yourself as an artist. With unfamiliar technology, you just have to make it work for you.”
On view throughout September
Machine Arts Gallery
Saturdays & Sundays 10-6pm
107 S Division St
Peekskill, NY
