Will AI algorithms and robots spell the end of human creativity and artistry, or can they be harnessed to augment our own creative potential?
At Dhoomimal Art Gallery, curator and critic Johnny M.L is challenging the perception of artificial intelligence that threatens to devour everything from original writing, art and literature. His show Print Age: The Art of Printmaking in the Age of AI, showcases 156 original prints cutting across time and genre – from Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jyoti Bhatt to Anish Kapoor. What provoked him to counter the advent of AI with such an ambitious show? “We often say that artificial intelligence is something which will replace human creativity and one day we won’t have anything that could be done with our hands or something like that. And also, there is a fear that human creativity will go useless or astray. So, my theoretical premise is actually to inquire into this assumption that AI will replace human creativity,” he explains. “When you look at printmaking, you can see that it is a genre that involves multiple levels of creativity. It is almost like making a sculpture. You have to knead the clay, you have to have an armature, you have to build it and mould it. There is a kind of a trial-and-error method. So, one remembers what Walter Benjamin wrote in the 1940s. He talked about a work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. His contention was that if you could reproduce a work of art or any creative object, its aura will be diminished because we’ll always talk about the original, which is coming out of human genius and human intelligence. So, he said that it will cut down the aura. But he was actually making the thought process wider for further engagement. After more than 80 years we have the advent of AI and that is always done through human prompts. So, human agency is never reduced. We know that despite all this artificial intelligence hasn’t yet evolved into a more capable thinking organism. It still hasn’t created something of its own. Human agency is always there. So, even if smartphones have democratised digital photography, people still go back to analogue and even keyhole photography. Human agency hasn’t yet gone out of circulation,” he declares.
Even at India Art Fair 2026, says Johnny M.L, traditional practices such as weaving, embroidery and printmaking are finding newer audiences. “There is a revival in enthusiasm towards investing in prints which have been appreciating in the auctions market as well. So, I think we are in a fertile field where printmaking could actually make things easier for the entry-level collectors. And once entry level collectors are there, once they get the taste of it and they are going to make it big,” he says.
