From Da Vinci’s Legacy to the Future of AI — Opening the Next Century of Art
 Embark on a journey across time and imagination that awakens all the senses.


Von Wolfe : The Garden Fortress marks the British artist Von Wolfe’s first large-scale exhibition in Asia. Bringing together 70 works spanning nearly two decades, the exhibition reveals an extraordinary fusion between artificial intelligence and traditional oil painting—inviting viewers into a realm where the classical and the digital converge.

Born into a family of artists, Von Wolfe possesses a profound foundation in both art and philosophy. The exhibition begins with early works that merge the influences of Picasso and Japanese ukiyo-e, extending to re-interpretations of classical masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt. Rooted in traditional oil techniques yet composed through visual collage and cross-cultural appropriation, these works reconfigure iconic images from art history. Within each canvas, cultural languages intersect, challenging fixed boundaries between East and West while prompting reflection on the intertwined relationships among art, history, and creation.

The exhibition reaches its climax with Von Wolfe’s recent collaborations with AI. By training AI models on his own visual corpus, the artist allows the system to internalize his painterly syntax and rhythm. The AI-generated images are then meticulously repainted by hand, resulting in a distinctive aesthetic that unites brushwork with algorithmic logic. These paintings, both refined and intense, weave together historical allusions, contemporary imagery, and surreal motifs to explore themes of technology and humanity, power and dignity, vision and gender—ultimately echoing the human desire for freedom and self-definition in the age of intelligence.

The exhibition title, The Garden Fortress, carries layered significance. The “garden” reflects the museum’s lush surroundings while evoking the beauty and temptation of Eden; the “fortress” alludes to Taiwan’s pivotal role in global geopolitics and the technology industry. The titular painting portrays a classical garden encircling a quantum-AI supercomputer—a symbol of both the promise and peril of future knowledge.

Beyond paintings, the exhibition also features AI-generated moving images that bring the figures within the works to life. These animated pieces not only mesmerize the eye but also provoke a question central to our time: as creation crosses the boundaries between computation and perception, how will we learn to see the world anew? Whether a seasoned art viewer or a first-time museum visitor, each audience member is invited to find their own perspective and spark of insight within this immersive and thought-provoking journey.
 






About the Artist

British artist Von Wolfe was born into a family of artists of German and Polish descent. Trained in philosophy, he approaches artmaking as a form of inquiry and reflection. His works are rooted in classical oil painting techniques yet intricately intertwined with artificial intelligence, creating images of remarkable precision and psychological depth.
 
Moving fluidly between the digital and the material, Wolfe reconfigures brushstrokes and screen-born imagery alike to construct a distinctive visual language of his own. His works have been exhibited in major international institutions, including the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris and the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
 

    
Photo: Nick Knight

 

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About Exhibition
 

• Confluence of a Floating World—The Resonance of a Hybrid Aesthetic

Von Wolfe juxtaposes Cubist-era Picasso with the styles of ukiyo-e masters Kikugawa Eizan and Utagawa Kuniyoshi, fusing their flat perspectives and vivid colors to create a hybrid cross-cultural aesthetic. He poses a provocative question: What if Picasso had encountered ukiyo-e in his early years—would modern art have taken a different course?
Beyond ukiyo-e, Wolfe also stages imaginative “collaborations” between Picasso and masters such as Seurat, Matisse, and Chagall, producing images that feel at once familiar and uncanny—echoes of creative encounters and reflections on the evolution of artistic identity.
 



The Peacock(left), The Carp Lady(right), Oil Painting, 300 x 200 cm, 2014-2015


La Grande Jatte, Oil on Canvas, 230 × 330 cm, 2016

 

• Concertos of Masterpieces—Honoring the Classics Through a Cultural Gene Pool

Von Wolfe transforms classical imagery into fields of color and gesture—sampling from the cultural gene pool to assemble new compositions. Beginning with The Creation, he opens a dialogue spanning five centuries, from Leonardo da Vinci to the present. In Adam and Eve, entwined vines and fruit encircle the human body, evoking reflections on life’s origins and endings. Across the canvases, the lost portraits of Géricault, the verses of Shakespeare, and echoes of myth and the undersea world are reborn. For Wolfe, the classical is not a relic of the past, but a living energy—something to inherit, extend, and reinvent.




The Creation, Oil on Canvas, 220 × 200 cm, 2012



Adam and Eve, Oil on Canvas, 210 × 200 cm, 2019      

 

• Chapter of AI Co-Creation—Von Wolfe’s Re-Evolution

In this series, Von Wolfe navigates between handcraft and technology, emotion and narrative—balancing them like the arms of a scale. From Ebon to The Runners, his compositions pulse with both explosive energy and quiet grace. Alone on a Wide Wide Sea reimagines Napoleon’s heroic image, revealing the allure of contemporary transformation. The journey culminates in The Garden Fortress, a work that anchors the exhibition’s theme—linking quantum computing with Taiwan’s lush greenery, where the classical and the contemporary intertwine.

The Garden Fortress, Oil on Canvas, Diptych, 185 × 185 cm each, 2025

Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, Powder-Coated Aluminium Frame with UV-Printed Fiber and LED Light Source, 180 x 180 cm, 2025

 

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TICKETS
	Price	Suitable for
ADULT TICKET	NT$300	General viewer
CONCESSION TICKET	NT$200	Student、Kaohsiung Citizen、KMFA Member、Viewer ≥  20
CARING TICKET	NT$150	Viewer ≥ 65 years old、Viewer accompanying a  physically/mentally challenged viewer
FREE	NT$0	Viewer < 6 years old、Physically/mentally challenged viewer
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts、