INTERVIEW
Yasmin Gross
A Hybrid Convergence: Nature, System, Self
Yasmin Gross, through X Machina Flora, produces images in which figures unfold like blooms and organic surfaces thin into digital residue. Her practice stages a charged proximity between nature and system, textures animated by algorithmic flora and spectral insects, expansive in reach yet precise in touch. The images unsettle perception, lingering at the edge of visibility, present enough to imply form, never settling into solidity. Trained by the pace of brand and editorial work, and shaped by a lived geography of precision and structure, Gross works with discipline as a form of intensity: measurement, refinement, and a deliberate pruning that keeps variation from turning into noise.
Artist
YASMIN GROSS
Lives
PARIS, FRANCE
Interview
G—G EDITORS
Published
FEBRUARY 2026
Minimalism and techno-functional design,
from Bauhaus to Dieter Rams,
still ground the way I think about images.
G—G
Your work draws from different creative fields. Which influences have been most decisive in how your images take form?
YASMIN GROSS
The years in brand and editorial work trained me in pace and discipline, producing images daily, fast, iterative, always under pressure. That environment taught clarity and rigor more than any formal education. But the places I’ve lived also left a strong imprint. Paris gave me an appetite for precision; Germany instilled the habit of discipline. London added adaptability with its eclectic intensity, and Frankfurt left me with a sharper sense of structure. Each of these places still resonates in me: refinement, experimentation, discipline, registers that continue to surface in the work.
G—G
Even outside a formal academic path, your work feels rooted in strong visual traditions. Which movements do you see as most present in it?
YASMIN GROSS
Minimalism and techno-functional design, from Bauhaus to Dieter Rams, still ground the way I think about images. At the same time, I’m drawn to radical image theatre: surrealism and the visual intensity of 1990s and 2000s fashion. I’ve also always been interested in systems thinking, Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage, cybernetics. Alongside these, other disciplines have shaped me as well: biology and botany for growth and surface, cinema for rhythm, and philosophy for how it gives form to thought. For me, these aren’t metaphors but conditions that fold directly into the work.
Artist
YASMIN GROSS
Lives
PARIS, FRANCE
Interview
G—G EDITORS
Published
FEBRUARY 2026
That pull between clarity and excess
was what first drove me toward novelty.
Minimalism and techno-functional design,
from Bauhaus to Dieter Rams,
still ground the way I think about images.
Each scenario shifts the weight
of the work, what it asks from me,
and how it might be received.
G—G
You’ve described a constant pull between clarity and excess. How do you keep your style in balance? Does it emerge from a system you construct, or from something more organic in the process?
YASMIN GROSS
That pull between clarity and excess was what first drove me toward novelty. Over time, I began to work through a more structured process: curating datasets, shaping model behaviour, directing prompts, refining through different passes. The aim is reproducibility without losing the possibility of surprise. The process keeps shifting as the tools evolve, but one thing remains: the system itself has become part of the work, shaping how style holds across different projects.
G—G
X Machina Flora embodies that tension, crossing artificial and organic. How does this convergence shape the way an image comes into being?
YASMIN GROSS
X Machina Flora is a hybrid organism where generative systems, nature, and self converge. For me it became a way to push images toward sensory intensity, so vivid they verge on excess, and to test how vision alone can trigger synaesthetic memory.
That same convergence also draws me to craft traditions where restraint amplifies intensity. From tailoring, printmaking, and typography I borrow a sense of finish and discipline that pure image-making often lacks. Collage and still-life painting remain touchstones. That discipline meets the tension I often feel between nature and technology. It’s a productive starting point, but once I begin working, the opposition usually dissolves. The process itself collapses the divide, leaving traces of both conditions inside the image.
That pull between clarity and excess
was what first drove me toward novelty.
Each scenario shifts the weight
of the work, what it asks from me,
and how it might be received.
G—G
What is the impact of moving your work through such different places — from a museum exhibition to a digital fashion platform?
YASMIN GROSS
Showing Aoon (And/Or Not) at designforum Wien, inside Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, made me think about how generative tools can shift visual language in a museum setting. Working with Syky, the digital fashion platform founded in 2022, brought another dimension: how “phygital” fashion and generative imagery can meet couture. Their immersive showcases, even extending into Apple Vision Pro, pushed me to reconsider how an image adapts when it moves across formats. Each scenario shifts the weight of the work, what it asks from me, and how it might be received.
G—G
When you work with generative tools, what do they sharpen in your practice — and what do you guard against being lost?
YASMIN GROSS
I see these tools as both collaborator and assistant, but never as co-author. They sharpen efficiency and expand variation, but unchecked they risk multiplying images without depth. Efficiency matters only if it reduces waste. For me, the challenge is to direct and to prune, to keep the process meaningful.
G—G
Cycles of refinement are almost central to any generative process. What tells you that an image has reached the point where it can stand on its own — and has the scarcity of time also begun to shape that decision?
YASMIN GROSS
I track every iteration, prune redundancies, and stop when an image feels distilled, concentrated enough to hold. I prefer a smaller number of precise outcomes over an accumulation without direction. Time remains the rarest resource, and balancing artistic exploration with professional commitments is an ongoing challenge. That scarcity has its effect: compression often sharpens the images; they arrive more concentrated, more exacting.
Across all contexts, I try to keep
the work exacting enough to hold,
but porous enough to stay alive.
G—G
Among the references that sustain your practice, fashion seems to carry particular weight. In what ways does it continue to shape your vision?
YASMIN GROSS
That editorial pacing, the alternation of central, expansive, and intimate views, continues to guide me, even beyond editorial contexts. Designers like Issey Miyake, Maison Martin Margiela, and John Galliano also remain anchors, less for a fixed aesthetic than for their capacity to stage transformation, to show how an image or a form can shift its state and still hold intensity.
G—G
Your work moves between art, fashion, and image without fixing in one place. Across these contexts, what remains essential for you?
YASMIN GROSS
Boundaries stay permeable. What matters is the brief: the intent, the context, the stakes. For me, the task is to sustain the same rigour in every situation, whether the outcome becomes a campaign, an editorial, or a wall piece. That consistency is what anchors the work. Across all contexts, I try to keep the work exacting enough to hold, but porous enough to stay alive. That tension, between discipline and excess, finish and overflow, continues to drive me. ◾️
Across all contexts, I try to keep
the work exacting enough to hold,
but porous enough to stay alive.
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