Theo Triantafyllidis presents Feral Metaverse (Spider) at Frieze London, the 2026 Frieze London Artist Award commission, developed with Google Arts & Culture and co-commissioned by Forma.
For Theo Triantafyllidis, the spider is a multifaceted symbol: uncanny to some, but also intelligent, creative, and unexpectedly tender. Visitors can climb the physical sculpture as an entry point into a shared digital environment, where players cooperate to form temporary group bodies, towers, wheels, group hugs, spiders, expanding the work from screen into space.
The sculpture's form took shape through an iterative exchange with Google's Gemini: Theo Triantafyllidis fed sketches of his own ideas into the model, which returned photorealistic renderings. A physical model was then photographed and returned to the AI for material suggestions, a feedback loop now used to work out details such as the spider's textile-like patterning. "I'm starting to see this AI-generated content as a strange, malleable material that is very much part of our age," said Theo Triantafyllidis. "I want to be able to sculpt and transform it."
The Frieze London Artist Award, established in 2014, supports an artist at a pivotal career moment. This year marks its first edition run in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, with Forma as co-commissioner and co-producer.
