By: Lee Sharrock
Chupei Yu’s curation of Engin Demir’s solo exhibition “Synthetic Realities” is a tour de force of how to curate digital art with a great understanding of how AI interacts with data structures and algorithms. “Synthetic Realities” ran from 10 to 16 June 2026 at the Handbag Factory in London and was Engin Demir’s debut solo show.
Yu’s intelligent curation of Demir’s distinctly contemporary artistic practice focuses on the Computed Subjects under Algorithmic Governance series, and the astute young curator’s interaction with an artist operating at the interface of AI and tech is a brilliant pairing.
Yu displays three landscape-shaped monitors in a kind of computational triptych along one bare white wall, with a solitary laptop situated on top of a plinth like a lonely sentinel. It’s a witty and contemporary way of displaying digital art on screens by echoing traditional ways of hanging paintings or positioning sculptures on plinths. The white cube format of The Handbag Factory provides a perfect template for Yu’s curation and Demir’s digital art.
Computed Subjects under Algorithmic Governance features four screens on which single-channel video works play. One of the videos features a life-like robot pictured in a futuristic interior, bringing to mind Alex Garland’s 2014 Sci-Fi epic ‘Ex Machina’, and commenting on society’s fast acceleration towards a future dominated by AI and Robots.
What stands out about Chupei Yu’s curation of Synthetic Realities is how she puts Demir’s investigation of AI front and center of the exhibition by creating a visual and sonic dialogue between moving image, sound, and the gallery space. Through this blending of disciplines, she creates an environment in the gallery that foregrounds the artist’s exploration of the increasingly blurred divide between artificial intelligence and reality.
Yu manipulates the visitor’s sense of scale by displaying Demir’s art on different-sized screens and mixing wall-based monitors with a monitor on a plinth. Demir’s use of sound is heightened by Yu’s curatorial approach of amplifying the soundscapes while emphasizing the visual narrative displayed on screens, which combine to create a sense of immersion for visitors.
Yu’s decision to present the artist’s digital works using display conventions usually associated with traditional fine art, such as painting or photography, succeeds in creating a captivating spatial arrangement. Wall-mounted monitors are installed at the height a painting would historically occupy in a white-cube gallery. This inspired curatorial gesture puts Demir’s AI-generated digital artworks in dialogue with art history, by connecting video art and AI with painting, sculpture, and cinema.
Demir’s video is accompanied by a cold, mechanical soundscape that permeates the gallery, evoking a dystopian, futuristic atmosphere that heightens Demir’s observation of anxiety associated with contemporary technological advancements. One of the most anxiety-inducing works in the exhibition is titled Computed Subjects under Algorithmic Governance 2, and it confronts anxieties associated with social interaction created by algorithms. Yu’s curation heightens the fear that our autonomy is being gradually erased by digital communication and big tech companies.
Yu has curated an engaging exhibition that elevates digital culture as an expanding art form, encompassing algorithmically generated images and video games. The combination of Yu’s curation and Demir’s boundary-pushing digital artworks results in a thoughtful examination of the way new tech is exploding established visual traditions and reshaping artistic production for a new generation. This opens a valuable critical space for the viewer to reflect on their own relationship with AI and tech.
