Miguel Chevalier

Miguel Chevalier (born April 22, 1959, in Mexico) is a French digital and virtual artist. Since 1978, Miguel Chevalier has used computers as a means of expression in the field of the visual arts. He has established himself internationally as one of the pioneers of virtual and digital art.

His multidisciplinary and experimental work addresses the question of immateriality in art, as well as the logics induced by computers, such as hybridization, generativity, interactivity, networking. He develops different themes in his work, such as the relationship between nature and artifice, the observation of flux and networks organizing our contemporary societies, the imaginary of architecture and virtual cities, the transposition of patterns from Islamic art into the digital world. The images he offers perpetually question our relationship to the world.

His works are most often presented in the form of digital installations projected at a large scale. He creates in-situ works that revisit the history and architecture of places through digital art, giving them a new interpretation. He also creates sculptures using 3D printing or laser cutting techniques, which materialize his virtual universes.

Miguel Chevalier has been featured in numerous exhibitions in museums, art centers and galleries all over the world. The rapid development of new technologies starting 2005, particularly the development of increasingly powerful and accessible PC computers but also the appearance of open sourced programs and engines such as Pure Data or Unity, led Miguel Chevalier to create, with the help of computer scientists, generative and interactive virtual reality software like “Fractal Flowers”, “Liquid Pixel”, “Second nature” and “Terra incognita”.

Miguel Chevalier also works to promote the recognition of the field of digital art in the world by closely participating in large-scale exhibitions such as Artistes & Robots at the Grand Palais in 2018 (curators : Laurence Bertrand Dorléac et Jérôme Neutres) or Immaterial / Re-material: A Brief History of Computing Art at the UCCA in Beijing in 2020 (curator: Jérôme Neutres).

Flows and networks Crossborders, Miguel Chevalier, 2007. Generative and interactive virtual really artwork. Software: AAAseed by Emmanuel Mâa Berriet. Digital Supernova, Miguel Chevalier, 2019. Virtual reality artwork. Software: Cyrille Henry / Antoine Villeret. Mini Voxels Light, Miguel Chevalier, 2015. 3 virtual reality artworks, 3 x (30 x 30 x 32cm). Mike-Art-Kunst editions. The representations of the world no longer boil down to describing the territories, but rather learning about the flows that drive continents and thus expressing the ways in which recent technologies influence the constitution of new images of the globe. Miguel Chevalier has had an early interest in the theme of networks.

Starting from Islamic art, a mathematical art based on geometry, as well as mosaics, a decorative art where fragments of colored stones, enamels, or even ceramics put side by side form patterns or figures, the artist transforms the fragments into pixels to create computer-generated figures. This digital geometry, either composed of crystals, as with Pixels Snow, or of arabesques, as with Digital Arabesques, forms a world of moving shapes and colors, like a universe in creation.

In many of his works, such as Magic Carpets, Miguel Chevalier integrates interactivity using sensors that engage the body physically and its mobility in space. The viewer is encouraged to move so that the work reacts according to its movements. The relationship with the image is therefore built with the idea of movement in order to explore all its potentialities and grasp its deeper meaning. With a gesture, the visitor causes a change in the work, he elicits or modifies a color, even if he cannot foresee and control all the reactions for which he is responsible.

Virtual reality artworks, 3D printed or laser cut sculptures, robot drawings or laser paper cuts, by using digital tools and techniques, Miguel Chevalier multiplies these crystalline fractal structured shapes.

Works: Pixels Snow, Magic Carpets, Digital Arabesques

Nature and artifice Ultra-Nature, Miguel Chevalier, 2005. Generative and interactive virtual reality artwork. Software: Music2eye. Herbarius '2059', Miguel Chevalier, 2009. Generative and interactive virtual reality artwork. Software: Cyrille Henry / Antoine Villeret. Texts: Jean-Pierre Balpe. Extra-Natural, Miguel Chevalier, 2018. Generative and interactive virtual reality art work. Software: Cyrille Henry / Antoine Villeret. Creations, such as Ultra-Nature, have their starting point the observation of the world of plants and its transposition into the digital universe. Miguel Chevalier, first inspired by his childhood spent in Mexico and his travels in Latin America where nature is omnipresent and luxuriant, but also by Japanese gardens, Miguel Chevalier's virtual gardens utilize algorithms borrowed from biology, which allowed him to create universes of artificial life, effects of growth, proliferation and disappearance. Works such as Extra-Natural also have an interactive component with the use of sensors. Each of the flowers reacts to the passage of visitors according to its orientation: the plants curve from left to right, the flower corollas fall, the leaves drop and the flowers disappear in an explosion of stamens. The lightness of their dance seems to sum up the evanescence of beauty and life.

These works address themes of controlled nature, the relationship between reality and virtuality, and genetic manipulation in the digital age.

Works: Ultra-Nature, Herbarius '2059', Extra-Natural

Meta-territories Terra Incognita, Miguel Chevalier, 2010. Generative and interactive virtual reality artwork. Music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi. Software: Claude Micheli. 3D modeling: Pascal Maillard. Body Voxels - The Walker, Miguel Chevalier, 2013. 2,20m tall wood sculpture painted in black and orange, steel base. Light Meta-Cité, Miguel Chevalier, 2016. Generative virtual reality artwork. Software: Claude Micheli. Miguel Chevalier has nourished, through his many travels in the world, a reflection on urbanity and cities which are illustrated through different mediums (digital installation, video, digital prints, sculptures...). Since the early 90s using digital technology, as in Terra Incognita, the artist has been translating the new forms of contemporary life and cities today: growth, infinite renewal, speed, transformation.

Miguel Chevalier therefore questions how to appropriate and transcribe the city faced with the multiplication of networks. Computer tools allow the artist to explore these new digital cities in their ever evolving world. Through his fixed or moving works, he composes cities between reality and simulation, inscribed in a transformable time-space continuum. He creates a different image of the city, as with Light Meta-Cité.

The artist also investigates the body as science reveals it through medical imaging (scans, MRI, ultrasound, thermography). Inspired by these new technologies which give an unprecedented vision of the human body, as illustrated in Body Voxels where mankind becomes transparent, wired, Miguel Chevalier revisits the classics of sculpture in an aesthetic linked to the digital realm (pixelation, meshing, voxelling). 2025 Digital By Nature: The Art of Miguel Chevalier, curator: Franziska Stöhr,, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (GER) 2025 Digital Floralia, curator: Philippe Piguet, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers (FRA) 2025 Meta-Nature IA 4 saisons, Domaine de Chaumont sur Loire (FRA) 2025 Digital Abysses, Musée en herbe, Paris (FRA) 2024 Pixels - Une expérience interactive avec l'univers créatif de l'IA, Grand Palais Immersif, Paris (FRA) 2024 Navidad de Cristal, Navidad Madrid, Patio de Centro de cultura contemporánea Conde Duque, Madrid (ESP) 2024 Flux Marins & Digital Abysses, Château d’If, Marseille (FRA) 2024 Extra-Natural, Musée National, organised by the IFC, Yaoundé (CMR) 2024 Fractal Flowers - Transparences imaginaires - Hommage à Francis Picabia, curator : Estelle Bories, Centre d'art de Mougins (FRA) 2024 Digital ParadICE IA, Festival Normandie Impressionniste, curator : Philippe Piguet, Edith Ballester ice rink, Rouen (FRA) 2024 The Magic Dragon, ICONSIAM, Bangkok (THA) 2023 Magic Carpets – The Origin of the World, curators : Jérôme Sans et Pedro Alonzo, Festival Noor Riyadh, KAFD, Riyad (SAU) 2023 Magic Carpets, Nobel Week Lights, Stockholm City Museum, Stockholm (SWE) 2023 Meta-Nature AI, Seoul Light, DDP-Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul (KOR) 2023 Kinetic Waves & Vortex, Siam Paragon, Bangkok (THA) 2023 Digital Cosmologies, Chapelle de la visitation - Espace d'art contemporain, Thonon-les-Bains (FRA) 2023 Regard Algorithmique, Galerie Pome Turbil, Thonon-les-Bains (FRA) 2023 Digital Beauty, Ara Art Center, Seoul (KOR) 2022 Digital Moirés, Ancienne tour de refroidissement du site d’Esch-Schifflange d’Arcelor Mittal, pour les Nuits de la culture et Esch-sur-Alzette, Capitale européenne de la culture, Esch-sur-Alzette (LUX) 2022 Bóvedas Celestes, Festival Gau Zuria, Eglise de la Encarnacion, Bilbao (ESP) 2022 Paradis Artificiels, Maison Elsa Triolet-Aragon, Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines (FRA) 2021 Digital Abysses, Aqua Planet, Jeju Island (KOR) 2021 Digital Moirés, Espace Niemeyer, Paris (FRA) 2021 Paradis Artificiels, Cineum, Cannes (FRA) 2021 Extra-Natural, Musée de Gajac, Villeneuve-sur-Lot (FRA) 2020 Power Pixels, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, (USA) 2020 Digital Cristaux 2020, Espace Art Absolument, Paris, (FRA) 2020 Power Pixels, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh (USA) 2019 Orbites 2019, Beaugrenelle Paris, Atrium Magnetic, (FRA) 2019 Digitale Supernova 2019, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rodez, (FRA) 2019 Pixels Noir Lumière, Musée Soulages, Rodez, (FRA) 2019 Machine Vision, Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2018 D'un rêve à l'autre, Domaine de Trévarez, Saint-Goazec (FRA) 2018 Power Pixels 2018, Galerie par Graf Notaires, Paris (FRA) 2018 Digital Icônes, Chapelle Saint-Nicolas, Grand festival, Verdun (FRA) 2018 Digital Abysses, Base sous-marine, Bordeaux (FRA) 2018 Ubiquity 1, The Mayor Gallery, London (UK) 2018 Ubiquity 2, Wilmotte Gallery, London (UK) 2017 Flower Power, Festival Aarhus, Bispetorv, Aarhus (DNK), Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2017 In-Out/Paradis Artificiels, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (FRA) Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2017 Fractal Flowers, front of the Hôtel de Ville, Ivry-sur-Seine (FRA) Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2016 Power Pixels, Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2016 Voûtes Célestes, Nuit Blanche, Saint-Eustache, Paris (FRA) 2016 Onde Pixel - Lo sguardo di... Miguel Chevalier, UniCredit Pavilion, Milan (ITA) 2016 Magic Carpets, IF: Milton Keynes International Festival 2016, Middleton Hall; centre:mk, Milton Keynes (UK) 2015 Voxels Light, Église Saint-Eustache, Paris (FRA) 2015 Complex Meshes, Festival Lumière, Durham Cathedral, Durham (UK) 2015 Dear World... Yours, Cambridge, King's College Chapel, Cambridge (UK) 2015 Méta-Territoires, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine (FRA) 2015 Vortex, Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2015 Paradis Artificiels, Domaine départemental de la Roche Jagu, Ploëzal (FRA) 2015 Instituts français of Morocco: Derb Lâalouj à Essaouira; Dar Benjelloun à Tétouan; Institut français garden in Agadir; Dar Batha à Fès (MAR) 2014 Digital Paradise, Puerta Roja Gallery, Hong Kong (CN) 2014 Magic Carpets, Festival Internazionale di Andria Castel dei Mondi, Castel del Monte, Andria (ITA) 2014 Paradis Artificiels, Musée d'art moderne, Céret (FRA) 2013 El Origen del mundo, Filux, Festival Internacional de las Luces México, Palacio de Bellas Artes, México (MEX) 2013 Power Pixels, Centre des Arts, Enghien-les-Bains (FRA) 2013 Fractal Flowers, Château de la Cité de Carcassonne (FRA) 2013 Power Pixels, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh (US) 2012 Power Pixels, Festival a-part, Carrières de Lumières, Baux-de-Provence (FRA) 2012 Nuage Fractal, Château de Dravert, La Guiche (FRA) 2011 Pixels Snow, Forum des Halles, Paris (FRA) 2010 Terra Incognita, Mis, São Paulo (BRA) 2009 Fractal Flowers 2009, Galeria metro station, Brasilia (BRA) 2007 Sur-Natures, LCL building on the Champs-Élysées, Paris (FRA) 2006 Arabesques numériques 2006, Ksar Char Bagh Palace, Marrakech (MOR) 2005 Sur-Natures in vitro, Centre Pompidou, Paris (FRA) 2004 Ultra-Nature, metro Central Station, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (NOR) 1996 Oro negro, Museo de arte Alvar y Carmen T. de Carrillo Gil, México (MEX) 1992 Performances, Winter and Summer Olympic Games, Albertville (FRA) and Barcelona (SPN) 1987 Baroque & Classique, Granit Centre d'art contemporain, Belfort (FRA)

Group exhibitions (selection)

2023 Fait Machine – Code sur le fil, Miam, Sète (FRA) 2023 Flowers Forever, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (GER) 2022 Herbarius (Évolution), 2022, is presented in the exhibition Les Choses. Une histoire de la nature morte at the musée du Louvre from the 12th of Octobre 2022 to the 23rd of January 2023, within the space named « Sélectionner, collectionner, classer » 2022 La couleur en mouvement, Galerie Wagner, Paris (FRA) 2021 Sur les chemins du paradis, Les Franciscaines, Deauville (FRA) 2021 Sculpture en fête ! L’exposition des 10 ans de la collection Fondation Villa Datris, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (FRA) 2020 Immaterial/Re-material: A Brief History of Computing Art, UCCA - Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, (China) 2020 Art Paris Art Fair with the Lélia Mordoch gallery, Grand Palais, Paris (FRA) 2020 Immaterial/Re-material: A Brief History of Computing Art, UCCA - Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, (CHI) 2020 Art Paris Art Fair avec la Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Grand Palais, Paris (FRA) 2019 Illusion Natur, Digitale Welten, Sinclair-Haus Museum, Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe (GER) 2019 Mutatio, Garage Amelot, Paris (FRA) 2019 Desviaciones, Museo Provincial de Fotografia, Palacio Dionisi, Cordoba (ARG) 2019 Diálogo entre sentidos: el viaje del arte perceptivo entre América y Europa, Museo del Canal Interoceánico de Panamá (PAN) 2019 Arte Botanica-Regards d'artistes contemporains, Domaine de la Roche Jagu, Ploëzal (FRA) 2019 TEFAF Maastricht, avec The Mayor Gallery (Londres), Maastricht (NLD) 2019 Cinétisme, Abstraction, Figuration, Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (F) 2019 Shadows, Galerie italienne, Paris (FRA) 2018 Art in Motion. 100 Masterpieces With and Through Media, ZKM, Center for art, technologies and medias, Karlsruhe, (GER) 2018 Artistes & Robots, Grand Palais, Paris (FRA) 2018 Al Musica, Philharmonie, Paris (FRA) 2018 TEFAF Maastricht, The Mayor Gallery (London), Maastricht (NLD) 2018 De Calder à Koons, bijoux d’artistes. La collection idéale de Diane Venet, Musée des Arts décoratifs de Paris (FRA) 2018 Art Paris Art Fair, avec la Galerie Mordoch (Paris/Miami), Grand Palais, Paris (FRA) 2017 Artists & Robots, Contemporary Art Center, Astana (KAZ) 2017 Hortus 2.0, Musée Louis Vouland, Avignon (FRA) 2017 De Nature en Sculpture, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (FRA) 2017 Data City, Centre des arts, Enghien-les-Bains (FRA) 2017 Gainsbourg still alive, Maison de vente aux enchères Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris (FRA) 2016 Sculpture en partage, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (FRA) 2016 Scope Miami Beach, Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Miami (USA) 2016 Intangible Space - Miguel Chevalier et Laurent Martin "Lo", Puerta Roja Gallery, Hongkong, (HKG) 2016 Les Lumières de la Ville, Galerie Lélia Mordoch, Paris (FRA) 2015 ARCHI-SCULPTURE, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (FRA) 2015 2050 - Une brève histoire de l'avenir, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles (BEL) 2015 Bonjour la France, Seongnam Arts Center, Seongnam (KOR) 2014 Digital Arabesques, Al Majaz waterfront, Islamic Art Festival, Sharjah (E.A.U) 2014 Metamorphosis of the Virtual, K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai (CHN) 2014 L'Origine du Monde, façade du Grand Palais, Art Paris Art Fair, Paris (FRA). Courtesy Louise Alexander Gallery 2013 Les Métamorphoses du Virtuel, 100 ans d’art et de liberté, Officina delle Zattere, Venise (ITA) 2013 Retrospective Auguste Herbin, Musée d'art moderne, Céret (FRA) 2013 Turbulences II, Fondation Boghossian – Villa Empain, Bruxelles (BEL) 2012 Retrospective Auguste Herbin, Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau Cambrésis (FRA) 2012 Mouvement et lumière, Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (FRA) 2012 Turbulences, Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris (FRA) 2012 Picasso to Koons: Artist as Jeweler (cat.), Benaki Museum, Athènes (GRC) 2011 Festival La Novela, Musée des Abattoirs, Toulouse (FRA) 2010 Manimal, Herzliya Contemporary Art Museum, Herzliya (IL) 2009 Inside, art and science, Cordoaria, Lisbonne (POR) 2009 Dialogue avec les collections #2 - paysage/vidéo, Musée d'Art de Toulon (FRA) 2008 Ultra-Natures, Emoção Art.ficial 4.0, Station de Métro Paraiso, Centro Cultural Itaú, São Paulo (BRA) 2007 Ultra-Nature, Glow Festival : forum of light in art and architecture, Eindhoven (NLD) 2006 Art and playing, Funsters, Seoul Arts Center, Séoul (KOR) 2005 Digital Paradise, Daejeon Museum of Art Gallery, Daejeon (KOR) 2003 Space Art, Festival Art Outsiders, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (FRA) 2000 Kwangju International Biennale (KOR) 1999 Virtuel Réel, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris (FRA) 1997 Magie der Zahl, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (GER) 1996 La Ville moderne en Europe, Museum of contemporary art of Tokyo (JPN) 1996 La Ville, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (FRA) 1993 Excess in the techno-mediacratic society, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica (États-Unis) 1992 Variaciones en Gris, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid (SPA) 1990 Art & publicité 1890–1990, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (FRA) 1988 Ateliers 88, ARC, Musée d’art moderne de Paris (FRA)

Public procurements

2017 Pixels Wave Light, Forum des Halles, Paris (FRA) 2015 Les Métamorphoses, Les Fauvettes Cinéma, Paris (FRA), Architect: Françoise Raynaud/Loci Anima 2012 Pixels Crossing, Forum des Halles, Paris (FRA) 2011 Pixels Op'Art, front of a building, Colmar (FRA) 2010 Seconde Nature, place d'Arvieux, Marseille (FRA), avec Charles Bové 2008 Fractal Flowers, Bank of Cheonggyecheon River, Séoul (KOR) 2007 Pixels Crossing, Hôpital Trousseau, Paris (FRA), Architectes: Agence Grimaud & Israël 2006 Mosaïque Unicef, Hall of the Head Office of the UNICEF, NYC (USA) 2000 Living Networks, Palais de Congrès, Paris (FRA), Architecte: Christian de Portzamparc

Miguel Chevalier's work in Museum collections

Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris (FRA) Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (FRA) Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (FRA) Mobilier National, Paris (FRA) Institut Pasteur, Paris (FRA) Fonds national d'art contemporain, Puteaux (FRA) Musée d’art et d’histoire, Belfort (FRA) MAC/VAL, musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine (FRA) Museo internacional de electrografia, Cuenca (ESP) Museo de arte Alvar y Carmen T. de Carrillo Gil, Mexico (MEX) Museo de artes visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas (VEN) Museo de bellas artes, Maracaibo (VEN) Royal Caribbean Cruce line, Miami (US) Centre Culturel Itau, São Paulo (BRA) Musée de la poste, Paris (FRA) Digital Art International (FRA) Fondation Clément, Martinique (MTQ)