Meet the artist who built a giant spider for a virtual world

Oct 06, 2026

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Explore the “Feral Metaverse” of Theo Triantafyllidis, the winner of the 2026 Frieze London Artist Award, which is co-commissioned and co-produced with Forma in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture.

Eva Langret

Director of EMEA, Frieze

Amit Sood

Vice President & Founder, Google Arts & Culture

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Courtesy of the Artist and The Breeder Athens

Listen to article [[duration]] minutes This content is generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental

Artist Theo Triantafyllidis won this year’s Frieze Artist Award for his interactive sculpture, "Feral Metaverse (Spider)." This climbable, giant spider structure invites visitors to cooperate in both physical and digital gaming environments. You can see this collaborative project at Frieze London from October 14–18 or visit Google Arts & Culture to explore how the team used artificial intelligence to build it.

Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental.
  • Check out "Meet the artist who built a giant spider for a virtual world."
  • Artist Theo Triantafyllidis created a giant, climbable spider sculpture for Frieze London.
  • Visitors climb the sculpture to enter a shared, multiplayer digital game together.
  • The team used Google AI to help design the game's visuals and characters.
  • This project shows how physical and digital spaces can encourage teamwork and play.
Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental.

Artist Theo Triantafyllidis built a giant, climbable spider sculpture that doubles as a multiplayer video game. He worked with a huge team and used AI to help design the game’s look and digital world. Visitors have to help each other climb the spider to play, which encourages people to work together. It’s a cool way to show how art and technology can bring people closer.

Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental.

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Athens-based artist Theo Triantafyllidis is the recipient of this year’s Frieze Artist Award, which supports artists at pivotal moments in their careers as they create ambitious new work. Triantafyllidis works with video games, live simulations, performances, and physical installations to build playful worlds exploring complex phenomena. At Frieze London, he’ll present 'Feral Metaverse (Spider), 2026,' a participatory climbable spider sculpture and live multiplayer game rooted in shared experiences.

In Triantafyllidis’ words, “spiders are the original engineers.” Strange, intelligent and unexpectedly tender, the spider became a central figure for an artwork built around physical contact, cooperation, and play.

Theo Triantafyllidis, Photo: Paris Tavitian, Courtesy of the Artist and The Breeder, Athens.

Artist Theo Triantafyllidis sits on a wooden leg of his installation in his studio, an expressionist portrait of a man with black hair is in the background.

A virtual world, multiplayer game, and giant spider

From afar, the giant spider-shaped structure might appear intimidating, but up close, its softness invites touch. Visitors are encouraged to help one another climb the sculpture. Once players are aboard the legs, the experience extends into the Feral Metaverse, a shared digital environment where players collaborate, move, and form temporary collective bodies together.

Theo Triantafyllidis, 'Feral Metaverse (Spider), 2026.' Game still. Courtesy of the Artist and The Breeder, Athens.

Six avatars on each other's shoulders forming a tower towards an opening in a textile draped cave with white 6-legged spider in the background.

An interdisciplinary team working with Google AI

The award allowed Triantafyllidis to expand his team of sculptors, fabricators, textile designers, game developers, and civil engineers. For this project, the group introduced Gemini into their workflow, working with it as a tool and collaborator as they generated the sketches, character designs, backdrops, and 3D renders that shaped the look and feel of the game. In rendering AI outputs as sculptural material, they were able to push both the game and the audience interaction with it.

The experience, which requires players to watch each other, exchange advice, and learn together, will move between the screen and the booth at Frieze. It’s a testament to how both public and online spaces can foster cooperation and warmth.

Visit Google Arts & Culture to learn more about the making of the work, which will be on display at Frieze London in The Regent’s Park from October 14–18.

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