The Role Of Curatorial Studios In The Digital Art Ecosystem

Forbes

14-07-2025

Purgatory Edit by Ali Akbar Mehta, Digital Intimacies, Late at Tate Britain, Curated by Hervisions.
In an era of incessant image production and reproduction, how does cultural relevance emerge? Who dares sift through presently developing tendencies to spotlight artists whose work is lightyears ahead of the curve, contextualizing it alongside comparable avantgarde explorations of the past? Who ventures to filter innovation from novelty?
Enter the curatorial studio.
Case in point: synthesis, a studio founded by Giorgio Vitale in 2017, which launched with a mission to elevate AR and VR, modes of expression Vitale felt weren't adequately represented in the artworld ecosystem. Since inception, synthesis has curated career-augmenting shows for artists the likes of Nancy Baker Cahill, Yehwan Song (FeralFile), and Cibelle Cavalli Bastos (SXSW).
Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, A Picture Can't Take Me (left), AES+F, Turandot 2070, Lynx Avatar (center) ... More and Lovers I (right), I KNOW exhibition, Curated by synthesis for Feral File.
As Vitale explained via exclusive conversation with Forbes: 'Our goal was to create a context where artists working with immersion were taken seriously, both conceptually and materially. It wasn't just about hanging screens and headsets on white walls; it was about crafting environments that honored the specificity of these practices while inviting broader conversations about how technology shapes identity, perception, and society.'
synthesis launched because it recognized mediums that required further critical attention but, from here, evolved. Most recently, Vitale curated Material Poetry for HEK Basel, proposing a lineage of the genre in the process. From the performative poetics of budding artist Franziska Ostermann to the foundational work of Eduardo Kac, this exhibition exemplifies synthesis' role in nurturing emerging artists while collaborating with well-established names. As Vitale affirms: 'When we place someone like Kac next to Ostermann, we're not inviting comparisons but encouraging viewers to think about continuity and rupture.'
A show like Material Poetry builds two types of bridges: one between legacy new media institutions and dynamically evolving modes of expression and another between artistic practices at different stages of development. Each is equally important.
Hervisions, a curatorial studio founded by Zaiba Jabbar in 2015 to address the flagrant absence of femme-identifying voices in the art and tech world, recently created a third type of bridge at Tate Britain: one between institutional polish and dynamic experiential exhibitions.
Both Hervisions and synthesis cite a desire to challenge the dominance of the white-cube exhibition in their approach, privileging non-traditional presentations of artworks, such as when Hervisions released a mobile-friendly video game in partnership with William Morris Gallery in 2023 or when synthesis showed Cahill's work at the former airport in Berlin's Tempelhofer Feld in 2021.
When I spoke to Jabbar for Forbes, she reminisced about her studio's origins: 'I hoped to carve out space for a different kind of future, one where speculative thinking, intersectional feminism, and digital aesthetics could meet on equal terms.'
Bionic Step by Nina Davies, Digital Intimacies, Late at Tate Britain curated by Hervisions.
Jabbar certainly delivered this via Late at Tate Britain's art and tech program, Digital Intimacies, via which she transformed the museum into an affective landscape peppered with the works of artist like Alex Quicho, Chia Amisola, and Romy Gad el Rab in ways that privileged 'the confusion, the glitch and the beauty of love, loss and connection."
A major takeaway, Jabbar cites, is the realization of "how vital it is to protect that sense of mess, immediacy, and openness within institutional contexts. People aren't just receptive to it, they're hungry for it. I'm excited to keep building on this model. Whether through nomadic formats, durational gatherings, or layered commissions, I want to continue creating curatorial experiences that centre risk, emergence, and relationality.'
Often, institutions contract these services from curatorial studios; other times, they partner with the studio, even offering works commercially. An example is The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age of AI, curated by Anika Meier and Margaret Murphy for HEK Basel. Intended to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the historic show Body Anxiety, The Second Guess included a commercial component intended to fund the production of an exhibition catalogue.
Emi Kusano, Algorhythm of Narcissus, AI-generated video, The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age ... More of AI, 2025.
However, there was so much collector interest in the exhibition's works, that Murphy and Meier transformed The Second Guess into a curatorial studio and partnered with the Tezos blockchain and OBJKT platform to present future commercially available shows.
The Second Guess is focused on presenting the work of envelope-pushing female and non-binary artists, while bringing the historic work of trailblazers such as LaTurbo Avedon and VNS Matrix (who coined the term 'cyberfeminism') to the blockchain. With shows at HEK Basel, the Francisco Carolinum Museum Linz and the Center of Media Arts in Karlsruheunder their belt, this young studio is proving impactful in bridging the internet to the institution. As Meier mentioned: 'Our goal is to help both sides understand each other better and learn more about the new online art world while also respecting traditional institutions and acknowledging that we are all here because of their groundbreaking work.'
Addie Wagenknecht, The Perfect Women, Computational, 2024, The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age ... More of AI.
A marked throughline of Meier and Murphy's first exhibition was 'the radical emergence of social media,' a new dynamic with which contemporary artists – and the artworld ecosystem at large – must grapple. Their most recent endeavor saw them bring similar themes to Basel, where they presented at digital art fair ArtMeta, adopting a gallery model.
The gallery-as-curatorial-studio model is certainly not new. LA-based EPOCH Gallery, founded by curator, educator, and artist Peter Wu, functions most frequently as a virtual gallery space but also produces in situ exhibitions, as in CATALYST, which they presented at Honor Fraser Gallery in 2023.
With Wu's keen curatorial eye, it's no surprise that entire exhibitions have been acquired by institutions: the LACMA recently acquired their 2022 exhibition ECHOES. EPOCH has also opened their doors to guest curators, notably April Baca, Katie Peyton Hofstadter, Nora N. Khan and Andrea Bellini, who curated a show for EPOCH at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève.
A RADIANT FUTURE, featuring work by Claudia Brăileanu, Ceren Su Çelik, Chris Coleman, Harriet Davey, ... More Sophie Kahn, Parag K. Mital, nouseskou, and Yoshi Sodeoka; Curated by Peter Wu+.
Transfer Gallery, whose founding members are Kelani Nicole, Regina Hirsyani and Wade Wallerstein, also traverses the commercial and institutional axis skillfully, adding a crucial and often-overlooked element: assistance with the conservation of time-based media works. What's more, in 2022 they curated wwwunderkrammer an exhibition of Carla Gannis' work for the Perez Art Museum. A few years later, they helped secure the private sale of one of Gannis' major works, The Garden of Emoji Delights. Transfer and EPOCH exemplify the ways curatorial studios can help artists build collector bases and secure institutional acquisitions, which can prove fateful in the long-term financial viability of daring artistic practices.
Meanwhile, early players like Studio as We Are, founded by Jess Conatser, helped bring digital art into the home, curating collections for Infinite Objects, which creates stunning screen-based displays collectors can flaunt in their living rooms.
Artists, too, can drive curatorial studios. Fakewhale, whose founding members include artists Sky Golpe and Jesse Draxler, brings about physical and virtual exhibitions but also provides compelling critical visions, penning articles that help amplify the stories their artists are writing.
It's Dark Inside, Evelyn Bencicova, 2019
As Vitale eloquently puts: 'Curatorial studios have a kind of nimbleness and closeness to artists that big institutions often can't match. We can walk alongside artists as their practices evolve, offering curatorial frameworks while their work is still taking shape. We create spaces where experimentation is embraced, while resisting the flattening effect of trends—making sure younger artists don't just 'surface' briefly but are rooted within the larger conversations they're actively shaping.'
In the case of curatorial studios, no rules are written, giving them the freedom and flexibility to be bold.Disclaimer: As a digital artist, I've exhibited in exhibitions curated by most of the curatorial studios presented in this article.