When Landscapes Go Digital

If you’ve ever wondered what landscape painting might look like after passing through an algorithm, Dissected Palette by Italian artist Quayola is worth checking out. Currently on view at Load Gallery in the Poblenou district, this exhibition takes a fresh look at a very old tradition—reimagining natural landscapes through the lens of technology.

Quayola isn’t just using digital tools to mimic paint—he’s letting machines interpret nature in their own quirky, imperfect way. The works in this show were born from field recordings in the Provençal countryside, where he scanned trees and captured scenery using high-tech setups, then ran it all through custom software. The result? Dreamlike images that blur the line between classical beauty and digital distortion.

The show features two core series: Pleasant Places, a nod to impressionist plein air painting but rendered with pixels instead of pigments, and Pointillisme, where laser scans turn into textured, fragmented landscapes that feel more like data poetry than photography.

In one of his interviews, Quayola remarked:

‘I’m fascinated by the Impressionist painters and their en plein air explorations. On one side using nature as a vehicle to discover new modes of visual synthesis, and on the other hand, having the process itself, the actual painting gestures, translated onto the canvas. The artwork which portrays both its subject as well as the process behind its making has always been very interesting to me, and something which is constantly driving my work.’

There’s something meditative and even a little rebellious about it all—these works celebrate what technology can’t do perfectly just as much as what it can. Think of it as nature glitched, with intention.

Dissected Palette is on view through July 12 at Load Gallery, a space known for pushing boundaries in digital and media art. If you’re into art that’s both rooted in tradition and headed somewhere completely new, this one’s for you.