Art MFA candidate Jack Lehtinen is the artist behind In the Lab: Poking Fun, a solo exhibition that recently closed its successful run at the Krasl Art Center in Michigan. The interactive installation explored how artificial intelligence has shifted physical and social interaction in a screen-mediated world.
Lehtinen, who earned his BA from the Peck School of the Arts and is now in the early stages of his MFA, drew inspiration from automatic drawing techniques pioneered by surrealists in the 1930s. He prompted a computer to generate random lines, which were then executed by a wall-mounted plotter, which he called his own personal drawing robot.
Lehtinen completed the pieces by hand using crayons and other classroom materials to highlight human touch in contrast to the machine’s gestures. His work intentionally exacerbates the distortion commonly associated with AI-generated images.
“I really want people to be critical about AI,” Lehtinen said. “I want to highlight the mistakes and to make people aware about what is or isn’t AI.”
Lehtinen’s show opened the same weekend as a concurrent exhibition by his mentor, Dr. Nathaniel Stern (Professor and Co-Chair, Art & Design). Their shared opening drew a crowd of more than 200, including a group from UWM.
The two artists have been closely connected since Lehtinen’s undergraduate days, when he worked as a research assistant for Stern and helped install an earlier solo show of Stern’s at Krasl.
“I get a lot of inspiration from looking at his [Dr. Stern’s] work,” Lehtinen said. “I think he was incredibly influential in helping me get connected in the art world, which helped me land this solo exhibition.”
Although it’s rare for a graduate student this early in their program to land a solo show at a respected venue, Lehtinen viewed the opportunity as the result of years of dedication. He made the leap into art during uncertain times and hasn’t looked back.
“I switched my major to art in 2020 during the pandemic. That’s when I really started dedicating myself to my practice,” he said. “Just the fact that 5 years later I have a solo show is crazy.”
He credits graduate school for providing the space to not only explore his creative practice but also explore new perspectives about social topics.
“Graduate school has been the most influential thing in my practice,” Lehtinen said. “Just being given the opportunity to dedicate the past few years to my practice and spend time with my work is the biggest thing. Being given the praise and advice of my professors and time to develop my work has changed me greatly.”
Payton Murphy ’27 (BFA, Film)