LONDON.- Dominic Harris doesnt just illustrate the natural world, he reimagines it through technology, light, and motion. In his digital artworks, nature takes on new life. Flowers bloom in real time, butterflies respond to touch, and colour shifts with the viewers physical presence. In
Halcyons Summer Exhibition, Harris presents a body of work that transforms traditional floral imagery into something responsive, immersive, and deeply personal.
Featured in the exhibition, The Promise of Babylon, a radiant digital floral orb divided into the four seasons. Inside, flowers bloom and fade, ever-changing, alive with movement and colour, the artwork invites the viewers into an interactive experience, where blooms unfold in response to their presence.
Harriss digital blooms showcase fluidity and transformation - florals aren't locked in a moment, they evolve and decay, reflecting the natural cycle of change and new beginnings found in both colour and life. Through richly animated petals and shifting hues, Harris creates an experience that you dont just see, you feel.
Although his subject matter often draws from the natural world, Harriss background is rooted in architecture. After graduating from Cranbrook Kingswood School in Michigan, he returned to England to read Architecture at the Bartlett School. He qualified as an architect in 2003, and went on to work for the avant-garde architectural practice Future Systems. But his creative instincts were always drawn to interactivity and storytelling. In 2007, he founded his own studio in Notting Hill, where, alongside his team, he designs, engineers, codes and fabricates artworks and installations.
Harris relationship with nature runs deep. Recurring motifs like butterflies, petals, and flowers appear throughout his work, often carrying symbolic weight. One of his earliest pieces, Flutter used dozens of video screens to recreate the movement of a butterfly, set within a striking architectural framework and employing advanced technologies, the artwork is a product of his ongoing fascination with the motion of a butterflys flight and the iridescent reflections created by the scales on the insects wings. Since then, Harris has continued to explore how digital technology can capture the fleeting beauty of the natural world.
In his latest immersive installation in Halcyons Summer Exhibition, visitors are invited to step inside Harriss world, where the artwork responds to movement, surrounding his audience with light, colour, and sound. It is not just an artwork to look at, it is an all-encompasing experience, where each person becomes part of the piece. Harris says what truly makes an artwork is what you see, how you feel, how you respond, adding that the technology is just an enabling product.
Through his use of colour, interaction, and digital technology, Dominic Harris creates something truly distinctive. His works dont simply hang on a wall - they come to life, responding to their surroundings as they breathe, shift, and continually change.
Summer Exhibition is now on view at Halcyons 148 and 29 New Bond Street galleries until 31st August 2025.