Image via Complex Original
Digital art is in a bit of a transformation period right now that we are increasingly excited about. In the last quarter of 2013, the art world began to accept the medium as more than just a hobby that some young people are doing in their free time. They realize that there are lots of artists out there making profound statements and incredibly beautiful and engaging works without the use of paintbrushes or clay.
Another thing that the world learned in 2013 is that there is money to be had in digital art. GIFs are now the preferred way to leave a comment in a thread or fill space on your Tumblr profile, and collectors are starting to come around. We think that the remainder of 2014 will be an even bigger year for digital art, so we decided to compile this list, in no particular order, of 10 Digital Artists You Should Know.
Jon Rafman
Jon Rafman taught us that Google Street View can be used for more than just staring at our ex-girlfriends' houses and seeing how much our neighborhoods have changed in the three years since the photos were updated. While he has a vast amount of work, the "9-Eyes" project is how we and most of the Internet learned his name. The art that he is able to create out of that treasure trove of largely unseen photography is amazing, though many have questioned whether or not it is "his" art at all.
Molly Soda
We included Molly Soda in your "Most Important Artists of 2013" list, and we stick by that decision. The 24-year-old artist has over 30,000 Tumblr followers and has been doing well for herself with commissioned projects, not to mention that GIF she sold for $1,300 at the PADDLE ON! exhibition. We expect to hear a lot about her in 2014.
Casey Reas
Borrowing a quote from his website to describe his work, Reas "writes software to explore conditional systems as art. Through defining emergent networks and layered instructions, he has defined a unique area of visual experience that builds upon concrete art, conceptual art, experimental animation, and drawing." He recently sold one of his pieces at the PADDLE ON! digital art exhibition for $11,000, which isn't why you should know him, but it is pretty damn impressive. The artist, code writer, and UCLA professor's work has been included in over 100 exhibitions over the years, which is also no small feat.
Petra Cortright
From many magazine profiles to several group exhibitions around the world, Petra Cortright has achieved a lot with her digital art, considering she is only 27 years old. She has had a residency at EMPAC, exhibited work in several Biennales, and has a long CV that will only continue to grow in 2014 with her confirmed participation in "Futbol: The Beautiful Game" at LACMA and Frieze Film. Visit her profile over at Steve Turner Contemporary to learn more about the artist and the common themes in her work.
Alexandra Gorczynski
Alexandra Gorczynski once described her work as "sincere and emotional new-media folk art." The RISD graduate has shown in numerous group shows and debuted her first solo exhibition at TRANSFER last year. The gallery's managing director Jereme Mongeon told ANIMAL that Gorczynski "more than anyone that we’ve worked with is really pushing on that boundary of what is digital art, what is physical art, and does the dissection really matter."
Nicolas Sassoon
In describing Sassoon's work, KQED once said that the artist "uses computer generated moire patterns to recreate simplified natural systems." The pixelated GIF above from his "Lost Hours" project is an example of how the artist uses digital forms to reference the aesthetic of traditional painting.
Among other projects this year, Sassoon will participate in an exhibition at Eyebeam during Frieze, and he will exhibit work at Prospect New Orleans.
Rafaël Rozendaal
Maybe the best "summary" of what Rafael Rozendaal does is this Creator's Project profile video. In it, Rozendaal discusses his attraction to the Internet as a medium and shares how he is able to build and sell websites as works of art. His philosophies about human interaction and digital spaces are fascinating, and his catalog of websites are insanely popular (around 30 million hits a year).
Charles Csuri
Csuri is considered the father of digital art and computer graphics, so you should definitely know his name. On his blog, the 92 year old writes that he helped create the field starting in 1964. Some of his art may not seem as exciting as others on this list, but without him, none of it would be possible.
Image via Pascal Dombis
In a statement for The Drawing Center's artist registry, Dombis said that "with digital tools, it is often more tempting to go for what is sophisticated rather than for what is simple. My own way of working with computers is simplistic; I try to make the most of it as a computational tool for its capacity to ceaselessly repeat the same task. No more, no less." He describes his art as "neverending experimentation with what is still un-known or un-thought." Such experimentation has landed his work in exhibitions at TZR Galerie in Germany, the 55th Venice Biennale of Art, and Galerie RX, to name a few. The video below shows an installation view of his "Post-Digital" exhibition from 2013.
Cory Archangel
Back in 2002, Cory Archangel etched his name in the digital art hall of fame when he modified a Super Mario Bros game cartridge from the original Nintendo Entertainment System so that only the clouds remained. For the 12 years that followed, Archangel has continued to create interesting and often subversive works, receiving praise from art critics and building an impressive resumé of exhibitions at Barbican Centre, Migros Museum, NiMK, MoCA North Miami, a retrospective at Carnegie Museum of Art, and the list goes on. Archangel maintains an online portfolio and "portal" of his past and current projects, including a tutorial on how to recreate Super Mario Clouds.
