Lyora Pissarro Brings Her Immersive Art to Dallas Through J Williams Fine Art

A New-Century Vision for the Marriage of Art and Technology

By Catherine D. Anspon // Nov 9, 2026

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Lyora Pissarro x Oliver Allaux, 2022 exhibition opening at Amangiri resort, Canyon Point, Utah (Photo by Alexandra Martin)

Let there be light could be the rallying cry for artist Lyora Pissarro’s immersive melding of art and technology. If that name is familiar, yes, she’s related to that Pissarro: Lyora’s great-great-grandfather was Danish-French painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). Considered the Father of the Impressionists, Camille was the elder statesman of the movement. His pointillist scenes of rural landscapes and 19th-century Paris are museum-collected and iconic.

Lyora’s celebrated family includes not only 19 artists across two centuries but also art historians, curators, and gallerists. To say the Brooklyn-based 35-year-old talent grew up in the art world is an understatement. Her mother, Lélia Pissarro, and father, David Stern, own a London gallery showcasing Impressionist, modern, and contemporary art. The gallery’s roster features Pissarro descendants — notably Lélia, whose figurative works recall 19th-century subjects and adhere to the Impressionist canon.

Lyora received rigorous early training from her mother but chose another path; at Stern Pissarro Gallery, she is represented by landscapes that veer into Surrealism. She honed her own vision when she moved from London to the U.S. in 2014. Studying first at Rhode Island School of Design, she relocated to NYC and completed her BFA at Hunter College.

A fortuitous meeting with projection-mapping artist Oliver Allaux of Rhizome Creative propelled her into the forefront of pairing digital new media with oil painting. A project at the five-star Aman resort, Amangiri in Utah, debuted the pair’s collaboration in 2022. This remarkable immersive experience dialogued with Amangiri’s mythic canyon setting, and Lyora has never looked back.

A recent calling card of the Pissarro/Allaux dialogue is an ongoing large-scale public installation for Rockefeller Center that began in 2024.

The artist wrote on Instagram of her epic Manhattan collaboration with Allaux that foretells an exciting future direction for increasingly ambitious immersive experiences that transcend gallery walls: “From oil on canvas to light in motion. This painting stepped off the surface and onto the LED wall at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, Rockefeller Center.

“In dialogue with the iconic waterfall facing Radio City … especially lit at night, [it] has become one of those quiet but powerful Midtown landmarks. Honored to be part of New York’s living canvas, creating work that rises to the scale of the city.”

Lyora Pissarro with “Follow the Sun,” 2024, at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, New York (Photo by George Underwood) — Lyora Pissarro with *Follow the Sun*, 2024, at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, New York (Photo by George Underwood)

We caught up with Lyora Pissarro at her Greenpoint, Brooklyn studio for insider details on her surreal, spiritually suffused, otherworldly landscapes.

On your collaboration with Oliver Allaux and how your partnership transformed your artmaking.

Oliver is so creative. His practice with his wife/creative partner [Steffi Min] touches upon everything including interior design, electric violin, and DJ sessions together. He builds large-scale sculptures, architectural projects, and festival stages, including one like a massive coral reef, and is involved in regenerative philanthropy projects.

Oliver is the busiest person I know and someone whose talent just doesn’t stop. It was a divine accident that we became friends.

The turning point.

I did a solo show at Amangiri, one of the Aman hotels in Utah. It is a stunning place. I was one of the first-ever artists to exhibit there and they asked me, for the opening night, if I wanted to do a performance. I found the question so weird because, as a painter, I don’t perform; I present, right?

So, I called Oliver, who I knew was an exceptional projection-mapping artist. I asked him if he wanted to project on the canyons, and he said, why don’t we project on the paintings?

And I thought that was odd, because I’d been painting the work for six months, and what were we going to do, cover them?

Then, as soon as I thought about it, I decided — that’s actually so cool.

The great American West as muse: Lyora Pissarro x Oliver Allaux’s 2022 collaboration for Amangiri resort in Utah was the project that launched their creative partnership.

On forging a new technology for painting.

That night at Amangiri, a lot of people reached out and wanted to buy the work. We weren’t ready to sell it because we didn’t know how to sell projection mapping. We spent the next year or two trying to figure that out. Because it’s very complicated to create a system for mapping that’s user-friendly — you can hire someone to do projection mapping, but to make it packageable for a buyer who has no tech skills, for their house was a two-year process.

Oliver invented an entire system for it that was incredible. Now we do very specialized custom pieces. We don’t work with most galleries, but with big spaces like 1251 Avenue of the Americas, Rockefeller Center.

We also sold a projection piece to the Fever headquarters in Madrid, which is an incredible company that sells tickets for art experiences.

We partner with big offices and public spaces because it’s so cool when hundreds of people are walking past and the building can host the experience.

But then we also do specialized commissions for collectors. We make site-specific works if the home meets the requirements for the piece [including having low light levels].

Your muses in art history.

Among the most influential light artists, Jame Turrell is a huge inspiration.

So is [contemporary new-media artist] Refik Anadol.

Then there’s Monet — I love Monet’s landscapes. They’re not simple, but they’re just simply perfect. I feel so much when I look at his work — his use of color and his spatial awareness and depth are so profound.

On your preferred subject.

The landscape is a shared space — so when I paint the sky and the sunset and the mountains, it’s our sky. It’s not my sky, my country, my border, you know? It’s this beautiful, ephemeral shared language that, no matter what you believe in and what your view is, or what you’re holding onto, or what you’ve suffered from, the sunsets are all of ours, right?

I really love that idea — that this one space unifies the world. I find a lot of peace in that and a lot of solace and comfort.

Lyora Pissarro x Oliver Allaux, “At the Edge of Everything,” 2026, at J Williams Fine Art (Photo by Oliver Allaux)

And I love the idea of landscapes void of humans. There’s a lot of noise with humans. I like the quiet of these spaces that don’t feel like there is any country or any person attached to them

Finally, I love what happens with projection mapping and the optical illusion of light because it creates multiple scenes with special effects. The point is that I on a spiritual level, I think that we believe our reality.

Parting thought.

With the world right now, especially in New York, we’re at the forefront of technological innovation and all of these new methods to make art, like AI.

I have this beautiful history [rooted in Impressionism] and this desire to be part of it. I love this combination of where Oliver sits and where I am — we are bridging these two worlds. You can be creating digital art and still feel the essence of a human.

Acquire a futuristic canvas from the Lyora Pissarro x Oliver Allaux collaboration through J Williams Fine Art. The Dallas dealer is her exclusive gallery in the U.S. and is also arranging commissions. Find more details here.