Goodluckhavefun is pleased to announce Observer, Eli Decker’s first solo exhibition in Austin, opening Thursday, November 12, 2026. The exhibition includes three large-scale, multi-panel paintings on aluminum and one sculpture.

Decker’s paintings draw from artificial reference images, which allow him to transform familiar scenes through the uncanny lens of AI. Decker sees AI as an opportunity to examine a warped reflection of society, shaped by archives of human images and text. The images are painted freehand by airbrush onto aluminum panels. Within the blurs, flares, and distortions of the paintings, people gather, observe, and witness moments of potential conflict. The modular frames make the paintings’ construction visible, supporting scenes of human uncertainty, beauty, and collective life. Decker’s interest in speculative and climate fiction informs an atmosphere in which our world remains recognizable, while its circumstances and future are uncertain.

A 3D-printed botanical sculpture in clear resin extends these concerns into three dimensions. Suspended and protected within two nested aluminum extrusion cubes, the imagined plant has adapted to live in a world that we do not yet know. The translucent flower catches and distorts light, giving physical form to the illusory world of the observer.

Living in Austin and working in software, Decker occupies a culture where building technology and imagining the future are closely connected. His choice of industrial materials and digital fabrication reflects his interest in using the tools of today to support human endeavors and investigate our attitudes toward technology and the future. Across the exhibition, the precision of the paintings and their structures coexists with the ambiguity of the worlds they hold.