Cezar Mocan is an artist and computer programmer. Through the use of narrative generative systems, he creates simulations that reveal machine observation as a form of worldmaking, while investigating technological lifecycles from hype through adoption, infrastructuralization and obsolescence. He is interested in the built infrastructures which enable our digital lives, as well as the ways in which their presence in the natural landscape affects our perception. Drawing on media archaeology and art history, his research process traces the origins of our current thought patterns around (technological) progress.
His work has been exhibited in shows and screenings at SOLO Contemporary, Yale University, Center for Contemporary Art Gdansk, Science Gallery London, MEET Digital Culture Center, Onassis ONX Studio, University of Maryland, Inter/Access Toronto, Athens Digital Art Festival, OFFICE IMPART, Panke Gallery, Artemis Gallery. His real-time simulation work, Arcadia Inc. was recognized as a 2021 winner of the Lumen Prize in Art and Technology. In 2025 he was awarded the ABS Emerging Artist of the Year award and the SOLO AI Award. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science (2016) from Yale University and an M.P.S. in New Media Art (2021) from New York University, where he also served as a research resident and adjunct professor.
Galleries
OFFICE IMPART (Berlin)
Artemis Gallery (Lisbon)
Contact
Email
Instagram
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are.na
Current & Upcoming ↴
Jun. 11 - Oct. 17, 2026 ✿ End of Signal at Onkaos | SOLO Contemporary ✿ Madrid, Spain (Solo Show)Solo Exhibitions ↴
2026 ✿ End of Signal ✿ Onkaos | SOLO Contemporary, curated by Sofia Enriquez G. ✿ Madrid
2025 ✿ Arcadia Inc.: IPO ✿ OFFICE IMPART Node, curated by Anne Schwanz ✿ Berlin
2025 ✿ World Upstream ✿ Clarvit Studio, University of Maryland, curated by Wednesday Kim ✿ College Park, MD
2024 ✿ Arcadia Inc. ✿ Panke Gallery /rosa, part of Vorspiel Berlin, curated by Robert Sakrowski ✿ Berlin
2021 ✿ Soft Power ✿ SPRING/BREAK Art Show, curated by Lizzy Chiappini ✿ New York
Group Exhibitions and Screenings ↴
2026 ✿ Symbiotic Imaginaries, MEET Digital Culture Center ✿ Milan, Italy
2026 ✿ nephila:first contact, Espace Parallele, curated by Flora Weil ✿ Paris, France
2026 ✿ SYSTEMS, curated by Nina Roehrs ✿ Lisbon, Portugal
2026 ✿ Waiting for the Light, Senne, curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight ✿ Brussels, Belgium
2026 ✿ The Self Made Between Algorithms and Flesh, Romanian Creative Week, curated by Gabriela Moldovan ✿ Iasi, Romania
2026 ✿ Sensitive Data of the Anthropocene, Center for Contemporary Art Laznia 1 ✿ Gdansk, Poland
2026 ✿ drifts;, OFFICE IMPART ✿ Berlin, Germany
2025 ✿ Rare Effect Festival, Arroz Estudios ✿ Lisbon, Portugal
2025 ✿ SCAI, Artep Gallery ✿ Sona, Brasov, Romania
2025 ✿ ABS Emerging Artist of the Year Award, Arab Bank Switzerland ✿ Lisbon, Portugal & Basel, Switzerland
2025 ✿ Grace is a Coin With More Than Two Sides, Funding the Commons Forum, curated by Stina Gustafsson ✿ Berlin, Germany
2025 ✿ Harmonia Ltd., Jardin des Traverses, curated by Vincent Moulinet ✿ Paris, France
2025 ✿ Connecting to Peers, Contemporar Gallery, curated by Flaviu Rogojan ✿ Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2025 ✿ Imperfect Futures, THE SOCIAL CINEMA and Science Gallery London ✿ London, UK (Screening)
2025 ✿ Down the Silicon Meadow, OFFICE IMPART and Blueshift Gallery ✿ online
2025 ✿ Synthetic Wilds, Athens Digital Art Festival ✿ Athens, Greece (Screening)
2024 ✿ [Hypertext](Hyperlink), Yale University ISOVIST Gallery ✿ New Haven, USA
2024 ✿ symbiocene/anthropocene, WIP Festival ✿ Nicosia, Cyprus
2024 ✿ Public Spam, Spam Index ✿ Bucharest, Romania
2024 ✿ Desire for the Useless, Simultan Festival ✿ Timisoara, Romania (Screening)
2024 ✿ Beyond Human, Artemis Gallery ✿ Lisbon, Portugal
2024 ✿ Matrix of the Not-Yet, Underground Art and Design ✿ online
2024 ✿ Reverse Tar Pit: Sludge Room, Brooklyn Neighborhood Arts ✿ New York, USA
2023 ✿ Reverse Tar Pit, Onassis ONX Studio ✿ New York, USA
2023 ✿ Sandbox Mode, OFFICE IMPART ✿ Berlin, Germany
2023 ✿ Reverse Tar Pit, The Wrong Biennale 06 ✿ online
2023 ✿ Desktop Studies, The Wrong Biennale 06 ✿ online
2023 ✿ Tellurian Traversals, Putty's Coronation Gallery ✿ New York, USA
2023 ✿ Desktop Studies, CAV Multimedia Art Center ✿ Bucharest, Romania
2023 ✿ Desktop Studies, Media Art Festival Arad ✿ Arad, Romania
2023 ✿ Romanian Design Week ✿ Bucharest, Romania
2023 ✿ Vertical Crypto Art Residency Exhibition ✿ online
2023 ✿ GUI / GOOEY, Plexus Projects ✿ online and New York, USA
2022 ✿ Dynamic Links, Spam Index ✿ online
2022 ✿ Scripting, the BLANC Gallery ✿ New York, USA
2022 ✿ Currents New Media ✿ Santa Fe, USA
2022 ✿ Release on Plottables.io
2022 ✿ Kampüste Dijital Sanat ✿ Istanbul, Turkey
2022 ✿ Lumen Prize x Infinite Objects collection ✿ New York, USA (Participating Artist)
2021 ✿ Lumen Prize ✿ London, UK (Student Award Winner)
2021 ✿ Anywhere But Here, The Canvas Bowery ✿ New York, USA
Or, take a look at all the exhibitions I didn't have.
Publications & Press ↴
2026 ✿ Cezar Mocan Exhibition At Solo CSV ✿ COEVAL Magazine
2026 ✿ Muestra End of Signal: el arte de desconfiar de los datos ✿ NEO2 Magazine
2026 ✿ Cezar Mocan's Non-Playable Worlds ✿ ABS Digital Art, interview with Guy Mackinnon-Little
2025 ✿ Play Quest: World Upstream by Cezar Mocan ✿ Side Quest, interview with Elliott Burns
2025 ✿ Gather Quest: 100 Games, 100 Artists ✿ Side Quest
2025 ✿ Playing with Power, with Cezar Mocan ✿ UNLOCKED Podcast, conversation with Delfina Sena
2024 ✿ Cezar Mocan on AI as a medium, nuanced conversations and Arcadia Inc. ✿ t2.world, interview with Stina Gustafsson
2024 ✿ World Upstream: Artist Interview ✿ Underground Art and Design
2023 ✿ Tracing the Line: The Art of Drawing Machines and Pen Plotters ✿ Vetro Editions
Teaching ↴
2022 ✿ Networked Media ✿ NYU Interactive Media Arts ✿ Adjunct Professor
2021 ✿ Points, Lines and Systems ✿ School of Machines, Making and Make-Believe ✿ Curriculum Developer & Instructor
2021, 2020 ✿ Programming the Net ✿ Upgrade Academy ✿ Curriculum Developer & Instructor
2020 ✿ Your first Chrome extension! ✿ NYU ITP Camp ✿ Workshop Leader
2020 ✿ Dark / Net / Art ✿ Tech for Social Good Day ✿ Workshop Co-Leader, with Jackie Liu
Education ↴
ITP, New York University ✿ 2019 – 2021 ✿ M.P.S. Interactive Telecommunications
Yale University ✿ 2012 – 2016 ✿ B.S. Computer Science