The ‘twentynine’ Experience Invites You to Step Inside the Surreal World of Maya Man and Isabella Lalonde

Artists Maya Man (@mayaontheinternet) and Isabella Lalonde (@BeepyBella) are set to debut twentynine, a limited-edition fashion zine inspired by glossy teen and women’s magazines like Seventeen and Cosmopolitan — but reframed through their own creative practices to restage familiar fashion image tropes with an uncanny, surreal twist. To bring the project to life, an immersive event in New York City will celebrate the magazine launch, inviting visitors into a disorienting yet playful world where beauty, identity and AI collide in unexpected ways.

The exhibition, held at Fridman Gallery in Nolita, invites audiences to wander through installations and printed works pulled directly from the zine’s DNA, each piece generated by fine-tuning AI models on photos of the artists themselves. By staging glossy, ad-like imagery through generative tools, Maya and Isabella question the perfection the fashion industry promises — showing instead how technology can both sustain and distort our sense of self. The result is a gallery space that feels like flipping through a living magazine, with AI-assisted visuals prompting reflection on illusion, control and desire.

Extending this critique, visitors are also invited to step into an interactive installation powered by the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition with the latest Intel Core Ultra processor. This piece blends selections from the twentynine zine with new visuals generated in real time through guest prompts, allowing audiences to manipulate Maya and Isabella’s visual personas directly on screen. Each distortion transforms spectators into collaborators, underscoring how identity shifts under human interaction and how technology reshapes the images we consume.

twentynine is more than a showcase — Maya Man and Isabella Lalonde describe the project as “going god-mode,” manipulating their own likenesses like puppets to reveal how deeply the world of fashion image-making depends on fabrication. By transforming the zine into a public experience, the exhibition urges audiences to confront their own relationships with beauty, technology and the illusion of perfection, while also expanding into a larger world where performance, AI, fashion and community converge.

Man and Lalonde’s project is powered by Lenovo and Intel’s Make Space platform. The initiative is dedicated to bringing together some of the world’s most innovative, forward-looking artists. Its goal is to spark powerful questions about how technology can shape a better creative future for everyone involved. On September 6, The twentynine Experience will culminate in a private, invite-only evening reception complete with a DJ set.

RSVP here for access to the public viewing.

The twentynine Experience
Fridman Gallery in Nolita
169 Bowery, New York
September 6 (Saturday) 11AM to 5PM (Open to the public)

Click here to view full gallery at Hypebeast