Uncommons, Las Vegas

Uncommons VLOG: How I make mixed media art.

Uncommons originated in 2022 when the architectural firm Jules Wilson Design commissioned KASSEUS to create five large-scale works for a new luxury live-work development in Las Vegas. Although the studio was familiar with his gritty, mixed-media aesthetic, they proposed a departure: an exploration of desert landscapes, mid-century futurism, and lunar imagery inspired by John Lautner’s architecture. Initially hesitant, KASSEUS recognised an unexpected synergy with an abandoned astronaut concept he had developed years earlier and accepted the commission, outlining a seven-month production timeline that mirrored the building’s construction schedule.

“Nicole I” Mixed media original on canvas. 92 x 60”. Sept 2023.

Image sourced from Jules Wilson Design Studio. To view full article visit https://juleswilsondesign.com/uncommons

To realise this new direction, KASSEUS expanded his multidisciplinary practice by learning 3D software, not to become a specialist in the medium but to broaden his creative vocabulary. His aim was not to photograph a model in a suit, but to construct a digitally driven visual world that could then be distressed, eroded, and overlaid with the tactile, weathered textures central to his practice. This research period drew him toward the speculative atmospheres of science fiction and cyberpunk, reinforced by his immersion in William Gibson’s Neuromancer trilogy. The simultaneous rise of generative AI technologies gave these themes new immediacy, collapsing the distance between imagined futures and emerging realities.

“Chloe V” Mixed media original on canvas. 72 x 72”. Sept 2023.

As conversations around artificial general intelligence entered the cultural mainstream, the project became a catalyst for a deeper inquiry into humanity’s relationship with technology. KASSEUS confronted questions about creativity, authorship, and the existential uncertainty provoked by tools capable of producing images with unprecedented speed and scale. While earlier revolutions such as the printing press and industrial automation reshaped labour, AI represents a profound shift as the first technology capable of replicating, even supplanting, human creative output. This raised new concerns about the future of commercial art, the erosion of trust in digital imagery, and the difficulty of distinguishing the real from the synthetic.

“Kelly V” Mixed media original on canvas. 72 x 72”. Sept 2023.

In response, KASSEUS embraced imperfection as a deliberate aesthetic stance. In a culture that valorises pristine AI imagery and hyper-corrected photographic aesthetics, his work foregrounds the material traces of human fallibility: creases, rips, abrasions, and the tactile evidence of hands at work. These distressed surfaces assert the presence of a living maker and reaffirm the value of physical, human-made art in an era defined by digital abundance. Uncommons thus marks not only a pivotal commission but also the beginning of a larger inquiry into technology, identity, and what remains uniquely human as we step into an uncertain future.