Kung Hei Fat Choi! 🧧 I hope your 2025 is off to a joyous start.

Looking back, 2024, the Year of the Dragon 🐉, was a transformative period for my art practice, so I wanted to take a moment to pause, reflect, and express gratitude.

The Dragon represents boldness and forward momentum. In retrospect, I see how much of my past year embodied those traits—stepping into new creative spaces, meeting new people, and embracing the unfamiliar. I made a dedicated effort to put myself out there, not always knowing where it would lead but trusting that progress comes from simply saying yes and showing up.

Through this process, I grew—not just in my artistic practice but in how I approached challenges, opportunities, and creative exploration as a whole. As I reflect on 2024, I’m grateful for the people I’ve met, the experiences that pushed me forward, and the adventures that shaped my art journey.

Here are some of the highlights from 2024, in rough chronological order:

Key Moments: Exhibitions, Curations & Releases

Sotheby’s Auction with Karlie Kloss

The Year of the Dragon kicked off with my work, Memories of Qilin #694, getting curated by Karlie into an auction featuring some of my heroes from art history: Cindy Sherman, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin. Watching the auction unfold was admittedly nerve-wracking, but seeing the piece find a home with a collector who has since become a dear friend made the experience all the more meaningful.

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Featured in TASCHEN’s ON NFTS

TASCHEN released their first major art historical survey on digital art, “ON NFTs” compiled by Robert Alice. Two of my series, Off Script and Memories of Qilin are featured in this publication. I enjoyed the challenge of writing concisely about my process for a broader audience, and I’m also honored to have had fellow artist Tyler Hobbs craft a beautiful mini essay on my work.

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Release of Guardian Lion with Avant Arte

My first release of 2024 was a personal reflection on heritage. It was initially inspired by a photo of my mother standing beside a lone guardian lion, leading me to explore themes of strength, culture, hybrid traditions, and symbolism through a digital lens.

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Commissioned Art - Trailblazer Award at the United Nations

In the late spring, I created Doves in Flight to commemorate the Trailblazer Award at the UN. The piece blends AI, hand-collage, and algorithms to depict a dynamic flock of doves, symbolizing the recipient’s mission of peace. Speaking about this process to a room of diplomats was surreal, and it challenged me to articulate my practice in a way I hadn’t before. Doves in Flight is now owned by UN Women, and was displayed at the Headquarters in New York.

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Bright Moments Finale in Venice

I traveled to Venice for the Biennale and Bright Moment’s last stop in their global tour. As part of the finale, I released a code-based series of 20 pieces, directly building on top of Off Script. Bright Moments has been a pivotal part of my art journey, and I have many fond memories of working with the team. Contributing to the finale collection felt particularly heartfelt––a way to give back to a community that helped support and shape my career.

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Combat Mode for Base’s On-Chain Summer

As Base’s first officially featured visual artist for On-Chain Summer, I released Combat Mode, a fun collectibles series on Highlight. The project made my work more accessible to a broader audience, and it was exciting to see new collectors engage with my art for the first time!

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Lumen Prize Finalist

Memories of Qilin and Interwoven were both shortlisted entries for the Still Image Award. It was an honor to see my work recognized alongside so many talented artists, selected out of a pool of 2,000 global entries.

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Phillips London X HOFA

Cresting Figure exhibited at Phillips London during Frieze Art Week with HOFA Gallery for the Spaces Exhibition, a show that explores various practices blending the analog and digital worlds.

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Artworks Exhibited Across 1,000+ Public Screens

Many thanks to Art Crush Gallery, who displayed my digital art across 1,000 public screens throughout Belgium and an additional 120 in Romania––one of the most expansive public displays of my work to date!

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Museum of Art and Light Inauguration

In November, the Museum of Art and Light opened to the public, becoming the first museum in the world to dedicate an entire permanent wing to digital art. I’m lucky to have been a part of the inaugural exhibition, DeCoded, alongside fellow artists Grant Riven Yun, Sasha Stiles, Snowfro, and Tyler Hobbs.

Memories of Qilin #453 entered into the museum’s permanent collection as one of their first pieces on file. Ahead of the launch, I also released Aphelion Skies as a part of a charity auction to benefit the museum, and was thrilled to see it collected by a wonderful longtime supporter, making the moment even more personally resonant.

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Miami Art Week & Material Histories

Miami Art Week was chaotic, eventful, and immensely fun (as usual). Untitled has always been one of my favorite art fairs given its thoughtful curation. So being able to showcase my debut textile-based series, Material Histories, there via TENDER Art was a meaningful milestone for me. It was a series that was over 8 months in the making, and I’m grateful for everyone who supported the show––not only longtime supporters but also the many new faces who connected with my work for the first time.

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Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:Wild Charity Auction

I closed out the year with Flux and Formation at Leonardo DiCaprio’s private auction for Re:Wild, his environmental conservation nonprofit. The artwork depicts an abstract landscape bound with dualities to illustrate an energetic yet delicate ecosystem. Donated jointly with collector AL&L, we raised $100K for the cause––with the winning bid from a phenomenal patron who now proudly displays the work in her own home. I’m deeply grateful to her and the friends who showed up in support.

A Year of Pushing My Practice Forward

In 2024, I focused mostly on 1/1 unique artworks, further integrating algorithmic techniques and generative AI into my work. This process—collaging fragments from multiple AI-generated outputs and applying custom algorithms—has become a significant approach in my practice.

Paradoxically, while AI tends to drive more automation, it has actually made my process much more labor-intensive and hands-on, taking me from a purely code-based process entirely mediated by machine, to a more manual one that underscores my love for collage and patchwork. In 2025, I’m looking forward to pushing these explorations with AI further, and seeing the ways it may transform my art.

This year also deepened my exploration of physicality in digital art. In particular, working with an embroidery team to produce textile-based works was one of the more challenging journeys of bringing my digital work into physical form. Unlike pure digital media, where adjustments are instantaneous, embroidery requires long iteration loops, with prototypes mailed back and forth for evaluation. There were moments when nothing seemed to click, forcing me to trust the slow, meticulous process and embrace the uncertainty of working with physical materials. Nevertheless, overcoming these challenges made the experience all the more rewarding, and I’m eager to see where these experiments lead as I continue bridging the digital and material worlds.

Looking Ahead: The Year of the Snake 🐍

The snake is a symbol of transformation, patience, and quiet strength. If last year was about fearlessly stepping forward, this year is about being intentional. In 2025, I hope to:

• Deepen my craft and explore new frontiers. As always, I want to keep refining myself as an artist: exploring new technologies, tools, and processes that help me further express my story and visual language.

• Expand my translation of digital artwork into new physical forms. I aim to build on what I’ve learned from working with textiles and new materials.

• Engage more meaningfully with my community. I hope to connect more deeply with people who support and inspire me, from fellow artists and collectors to friends, family, and the broader creative community.

I’m lucky to already have so much lined up for 2025. I don’t know exactly where these opportunities will lead, but I’m excited to keep trying my best and showing up. And as I move forward, I aspire to do so with the spirit of the Snake—learning, evolving, and continually growing.

And more than anything else, putting myself out there in 2024 made me realize that the most fulfilling part of being an artist is connecting with others on a deeper level. So thank you all for being part of my art journey this past year––whether that meant attending an exhibition, collecting my artwork, or just expressing words of kindness.  Your support means the world. ❤️ Here’s to an auspicious year filled with prosperity, beautiful art, and joy for all! 🧧🧧🧧

Thank you. <3

Much love,
Emily