Whitney Biennial 2026

In the 1980s—three decades into her career as an abstract painter—Samia Halaby observed that the most historically ambitious paintings had always used the technology of their time and began to use a personal computer in her own work. After teaching herself the programming languages BASIC and C, Halaby used a Commodore Amiga 1000 to create what she calls “kinetic paintings.” She continues programming on a PC to explore the motion, light, and transformation that much abstract art has long suggested.