Dive Into the Digital Art World at Art Dubai

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Fabin Rasheed “Formless” 2023. Morrow Collective

The 2023 edition of Art Dubai Digital builds on last year’s success at diving into the most exciting practices at the intersection of art and technology. A microcosm of the rapidly innovative global art world, Art Dubai Digital highlights the galleries and platforms leading the way in capturing and shepherding artistic practices that adopt and integrate technologies. Art Dubai continues to be one of the very few international art fairs with a section dedicated to the discovery and support of this rapidly changing and expanding new media arts scene, especially considering its concentration on art from the Global South.

Ahead of the fair, here are five sneak previews that I’m really excited about of cutting edge digital art that will be at the fair this year.

Based in Tokyo, Japan, DDE NFT will present the works of two pioneering artists, Yoichiro Kawaguchi and Yoichi Ochiai. Kawaguchi has been working with computer graphics since the 1970s and was one of the first artists to show computer art at the Venice Biennale (WHEN?). Ochiai is another major media art figure in Japan, and his practice explores the boundaries between physical representation and digital forms towards what he deems ‘Digital Nature’. Ochiai’s Re-Digitalisation of Waves (2022) comprises 3D printed sculptures, digital scans of physical objects, and a new motion visual work created based on the re-digitalisation of the sculpture.

Lian Foundation is another exciting addition to this year’s fair. Founded by Fiorenzo Manganiello, a private collector, patron of young artists, professor and expert in blockchain technology, Lian Foundation dedicates funding to high social impact initiatives. At Art Dubai Digital, the foundation will showcase a phygital selection of artworks that bridge the gap between physical and digital, questioning how we should view and interact with them.

Galleria Continua, which opened a new space in Dubai in November 2021, will feature artist Loris Cecchini, whose work is occupied by metamorphosis. Cecchini’s Digital Sculptures (2022) is made up of both physical sculptures as well as digital videos, posing the intriguing question of which is the authentic original when the sculptures have been digitally rendered and produced, while demonstrating how approaches to object making are being transformed with today’s technology.

Blockchain art aficionados Fingerprints DAO (or Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, a group that utilises decentralised mechanisms made possible by cryptocurrency and blockchain technology) will present digital artist Sarah Meyohas’ Bitchcoin (2015-2021), which examined the relationship between the material and immaterial. Meyohas created her own currency and had the tokens’ value backed by the artist’s photographic prints. This project is not only one of the first tokenized artworks on blockchain, but it is also an important case study for how artists are critically questioning the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies in relation to the subjective value of art. In restaging the original presentation at Where Gallery from 2015, this presentation will provide us with the space to reflect on how conceptual art has evolved in the digital and media art worlds while offering collectors an opportunity to participate in early crypto art history.

MORROW Collective’s presentation, titled, “UAE First Immersion” will also focus on new works created by leading digital artists produced after their visit to the UAE for the first time in November 2022. UAE First Immersion will present a selection of new artworks by some of the leading names in crypto art, produced after they visited the UAE for the first time in November 2022.

The presentation will feature new works by artists including: Coldie, Colborn Bell, Monaris, Bryan Brinkman, Kirk Finkel and the works will be made available first to collectors at Art Dubai 2023.

Words by Clara Che Wei Peh

Art Dubai Digital 2023 participating galleries and artists:

6529, Miami

AFROFUTOURISM, Lagos

Art in Space, Dubai

Artemis Gallery, Lisbon

GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano/Beijing/Les Moulins/Havana/São Paulo/Rome/Paris/Dubai

Crypto Oasis, Dubai

DDE NFT Art Project prod. by Shun Art Gallery, Tokyo

Fingerprints DAO

Gazell.io, Baku/London

Lian Foundation, Geneva