Luke Shannon (b. 2000) is a generative artist who writes code and builds custom machines to study selfhood in systems.,Before turning to algorithmic work he made physical art in paint, gouache and watercolor, and he combines code with materials such as ceramics, glass, metal, embroidery and wood.
Shannon acquired his first ether in 2017 and discovered NFTs through articles his father sent him. That search led him to Art Blocks in January 2021, when the platform was still small enough that he could message its founder Erick Calderon, known as Snowfro, directly. His early Art Blocks collection The Opera gave voice to existential moments through ambivalent figures whose open mouths could be singing, screaming or simply held in surprise. In early 2022 he ran a Sunday popup, making generative art live by coding, plotter, embroidery machine or laser cutter, and giving the results away. That experience led Bright Moments to invite him as an artist in residence for its live minting events. The resulting collection Orchids, minted live through Bright Moments, explored interdependence between the elements of a system.
In 2023 Shannon created pattern.dst for “Future Frequencies”, a Christie's auction developed with Gucci, generating a pattern from the silhouette of one of the brand's coats. He released the pattern as an NFT with downloadable SVG files, opening up a piece of fashion intellectual property that is normally tightly controlled.The following year he made Lightbreak, a 100-piece collection for Bright Moments, in which particles of light interact with themselves and their paths become boundaries for further reflection.In April 2025 he took part in “Truth or”, the opening group show at Heft gallery in New York.At Heft he also developed a Commissions Series, in which collectors become co-authors through a live session of scanning, plotting and dialogue that produces a unique, hand-signed print paired with an Ethereum token.
For his 2025 exhibition “Replacement Character” at Heft, Shannon built a custom plotter-scanner: a standard document scanner mounted on a 4-by-6-foot plotter bed that recorded life-size scans of the body through physical contact with the glass, rather than an optical image. The show presented 40 life-size prints and ten video works, its title taken from the placeholder symbol a computer displays when it cannot render a character.It traveled to Paris Photo 2025, where Shannon demonstrated the plotter-scanner live and held a book signing at the Heft booth.,,In Le Random's year-end survey, curator Christiane Paul and the artist Tyler Hobbs both named “Replacement Character” their standout artwork of 2025.
