The constant evolution of photographer turned digital artist Oleg Gant

Oleg Gant is a photographer and artist based in Vilnius, Lithuania. He began his career as a journalist, before moving into photography – a practice that then evolved into photographic and digital art. He told us about his creative journey, and his recent experiments with exactly.ai.

I was born in Russia – in St. Petersburg. I moved to Lithuania many years ago and I'm working here right now. I was a journalist from 14-years-old. I started to write, then to work for local radio stations. Later I worked in many countries in Central Asia; Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Tajikistan, many different countries. Also, I worked alone. And as a journalist, I usually made the pictures by myself, to illustrate my stories. Then, somehow, I moved from one profession to another. I think it's pretty regular for photographers to think about being an artist. I think people should change their profession from time to time. It's boring to be in the same field for many years.

A few artists influenced me a lot. The first was Georgia O’Keeffe. She was amazing in how she looked at simple things from different angles; fixing them with different approaches. The same with Chaïm Soutine, the Belarusian-French proto-expressionist. His technique, and how he saw things, inspired me a lot. Especially in my drawings. The third person is a lesser known artist, Anatoly Zverev. He was an underground Soviet artist – a very interesting person. He left us pretty early, in the late-eighties last century, but his technique and the way he viewed people and the world was absolutely amazing.

As a photographer I developed my own technique, which helped me create the work I’m making right now. I experimented a lot; with different approaches, with different cameras, with different lenses. It was a long way to work – and an expensive way I would say. Because of the lenses, and how many lenses I broke! But the main goal of every artist is to create something new – every artist and photographer dreams about creating their own unique style. Dreaming, looking, trying different techniques. I'm not sure if I’ve found it, but I feel that I’m on the right path. I like what I'm doing.

I started creating digital paintings three or four years ago – around when the NFT market arrived. I saw the possibilities – it was an interesting movement. What's interesting with digital art is you can evolve pretty fast. Right now we have the privilege to change ourselves under so many different circumstances, because we have so many instruments and tools. Actually, I think that the artist shouldn't be consistent in the long term.

For my digital paintings, I work with photography. I take a photo, then I draw on layers in Procreate or an Affinity designer or photo software. Then of course Midjourney arrived and I started trying different techniques with that. With AI, I think it's not even about techniques, it's more about ideas. You give it a good prompt – or a bad prompt can actually be even better – and they create something crazy. It gives you inspiration.

The first model I developed in exactly.ai consisted of images from my ongoing project on unconscious abstraction. These are photographs of everyday objects and things around us, taken from unconventional angles and distances. The project was inspired by the works of Georgia O'Keeffe. exactly.ai helped me to go beyond the project and the photographs themselves; it brings together different images, mixes them, and creates something new while retaining the core idea. Then, this "idea" can be dressed in any concept.

The second series of works is called "Moon Girl (Madonna Lunare)" – it’s an original art project conceived for my NFT portfolio. The collection features 22 paintings created using mixed media, photography, and digital hand-drawing techniques. In these works, I captured moments of transformation in my friend. The changes she undergoes due to external factors—joy, bitterness, the search for self—are depicted. I illuminated her aura, and it seemed to me that the light around her changed depending on the phase of life she was in. By combining these works in exactly.ai, I aimed to create a unified model composed of the various states.

exactly.ai is a pretty new instrument for me. I like it a lot. I think the idea actually is very interesting. The main question for me is generative art. I'm not sure what the meaning of this art is yet. Undoubtedly it exists, undoubtedly it will develop. But how and for what? I see AI as offering huge possibilities. I see it like a friend – a great tool.

Right now I'm working on a project called Transgressions – it’s a portrait project. I turn people inside out and draw what they keep inside themselves; what they either hide or simply keep in the dark from prying eyes. And usually it's a very torn, distorted, fragmented world. Very emotional. Even my friends, they often don’t look like themselves in these portraits. I’m trying to show them in the moment; right now. In a year, maybe two, they will have forgotten about these experiences or pains or joys. But I hope that my work will help them remember.