Latest news with #DigitalArtAwards
CNBC
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNBC
Can art save the earth? Artists share how their work strives to do just that
Politics, science and the law aren't the only fields with the ability to influence climate change policy — when it comes to making direct interventions, art shouldn't be underestimated, industry insiders say. The arts have an "essential" role to play in shaping environmental governance, according to the organization overseeing the arts program at the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), which starts on June 9, in Nice, France. According to Markus Reymann, co-director of contemporary art and advocacy foundation TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, art and culture can "rekindle relationships" with the environment and those who inhabit it. At UNOC, TBA21 will oversee about 20 activities, including exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions, to raise awareness of and engagement with the ocean around the topics of regenerative practices and sustainability. The initiatives "assert the vital role of culture and arts in high-level political decision-making," according to an emailed statement. The exhibition "Becoming Ocean: a social conversation about the Ocean," is part of UNOC and features work from more than 20 artists, "exploring the main challenges facing the Ocean," according to TBA21's website. "[Art] can nurture and foster [the] care and the agency that we've now externalized to experts — the scientists are going to take care of this, politicians will take care of this … and so we [feel we] have nothing to do but consume and make money to be able to consume. And I think art can break that open," Reymann told CNBC in a video call. It's a theme that artist Maja Petric relates to. Her light installations, or "sculptures," aim to evoke what people feel when they experience pristine nature, she told CNBC by video call. When asked whether her work can influence climate policy, she said in an email: "As an artist, I don't speak in metrics or policy. But there is evidence: it's in every person who lingers with the piece, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours." In May, Petric won an innovation prize for her work "Specimens of Time, Hoh Rain Forest, 2025," as part of the Digital Art Awards put on by gallery The House of Fine Art and auction house Phillips. The sculpture appears in the form of a glass cube, which glows with light that changes color based on live temperature data taken from the Hoh Rain Forest in near Seattle, Washington State. "The idea is: what if … none of those landscapes exist in the future, but how will we think of them?" Petric said of her work. It's not only contemporary art that explores human influence on the natural world. "Historically, perhaps the greatest contribution artists have made in the context of environmental risk is to remind wider society of what might be lost. From Turner landscapes and Constable skyscapes to Richard Long's walks in the wilds, artists remind us of the preeminence of the natural world," Godfrey Worsdale, director of the Henry Moore Foundation, said in an email to CNBC. Worsdale also noted the German artist Joseph Beuys' "7000 Oaks" project, for which the artist and his team planted 7,000 oak trees, one of which stands outside the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, England. "It is growing steadily as the modern-day city swirls around it. But as we know, the oak grows slowly and the world is changing ever more quickly," Worsdale said. Art can be a way of making the climate crisis "easier to comprehend and act upon," according to Lula Rappoport, community coordinator at Gallery Climate Coalition. "The greatest obstacle to meaningful policy is how abstract and immense climate change can feel," Rappoport told CNBC by email. "Art can bridge this gap by helping us understand challenging concepts and imagining alternative futures," she said. Rappoport cited Ice Watch London, a 2018 project that saw artist Olafur Eliasson bring 24 large ice blocks from an iceberg in Greenland to London, as an example of "how art can literally bring distant concepts close to home." For artist Ahmet Ogut, art has a "power and agency" that he said doesn't need to wait to be recognized by politicians or scientists. "Art doesn't need permission, it works in parallel systems, activating new imaginaries, forming temporary communities, and offering tools of resistance," he said in an email to CNBC. Ogut pointed to artist Lauren Bon's "Bending the River," a large-scale project that has diverted water from the Los Angeles River to irrigate public land as an artwork that has intervened "directly in ecological infrastructure," and created "a form of civic reparation." Ogut's work "Saved by the Whale's Tail (Saved by Art)," which will be launched at Stratford subway station in London on Sept. 10, was "inspired by an incident that occurred near Rotterdam in 2020 when a train overran the tracks and was saved by a sculpture of a whale's tail," according to Transport For London's website. "Art can help us stop pretending we're separate from the planet," Ogut said. "The future lies not in grand declarations, but in small, consistent solidarities. That's where art begins." Ogut also advocated for artists to be included early on in projects that tackle climate change, and cited Angel Borrego Cubero and Natalie Jeremijenko's Urban Space Station, which recycles building emissions and grows food indoors, as an example of "how deeply integrated artistic approaches can be." "We need more collaborations where artists are not brought in to merely "aestheticize" or question, but are involved from the beginning as equal partners," Ogut said.
Euronews
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
First-ever Digital Art Awards crown five visionary winners
The boundary-blurring world of digital art took centre stage in London last night, as the first-ever Digital Art Awards crowned its winners at a ceremony hosted by Phillips. The event, which coincided with the opening of a week-long exhibition, celebrated some of the most innovative minds working at the intersection of technology, code, and creative expression. Four unique artists - Maja Petrić, Zach Lieberman, Deekay, and Operator - were each awarded a $10,000 USDC (a type of cryptocurrency stablecoin) commission across four categories, from Moving Image to Experimental. A fifth award honoured the Yawanawá Indigenous community of Brazil for their groundbreaking collaboration with AI artist Refik Anadol on Winds of Yawanawá, a digital artwork fusing real-time environmental data with ancestral knowledge. Backed by HOFA Gallery in partnership with PhillipsX and Hivemind Capital Partners, the awards reflect the growing output of digital art - from luminous data sculptures to theatre-driven code experiments. Croatian artist Maja Petrić, known for her large-scale light installations that incorporate AI and real-time environmental data, received the Innovation Award for her mesmerising work Specimens of Time: Hoh Rain Forest (2025). The piece, consisting of a collection of immersive light sculptures, interactive installations, and video works, was praised as a haunting, high-tech homage to one of the world's last remaining temperate rainforests. Central to the series are climate-responsive sculptures that glow and shift with live data on sea temperatures, pollution, and heat stress, serving as living and breathing memorials to vanishing ecosystems. Winner of the Moving Image category was Deekay, who's signature style - vibrant, looping, hand-drawn animations with big emotional heart - has made him a cult favourite in the NFT space. His breakout work, Life and Death, made waves in 2022 when it sold for more than $1 million on SuperRare. But it was his thought-provoking animation Hands of Time, that won him a prize at the inaugural Digital Art Awards. Minimal in design but rich in feeling, the 2D video game-style loop poignantly charts the progression of a human life: from birth and childhood through friendship, love, career success, ageing, and finally death. Powered by embed youtube video and snabblån med betalningsanmärkning Artist duo Operator (consisting of Ania Catherine and Dejha Ti) took home the Experimental Award for their project Human Unreadable - a live, generative installation merging surveillance tech, choreography and code. The work asks urgent questions about who gets to move freely, who gets monitored, and how digital spaces mirror physical ones in ways we're only beginning to understand. Operator's investigation into privacy began with their 2019 performance installation On View, commissioned by the SCAD Museum of Art. The project invited visitors to move through three different rooms, each using hidden technology like facial recognition and sensors to react to them in real time. American new media artist Zach Lieberman, a leading figure in the creative coding community, was honoured with the Still Image Award for his Ripple Study series. Using custom-built code, Lieberman transforms subtle movements in nature into poetic digital artworks, inviting viewers to quietly contemplate what they see. In his own words Lieberman says: "In this work, I am trying capture the feeling of light on water. I think there's something really profound about how impossible it is to recreate natural phenomenon with code." He adds: "It's impossible to make something as beautiful as what you might see out in the world, but it's possible to try to express the feelings you have observing something beautiful. I try to bring those feelings into my work and images." Finally, the Yawanawá Indigenous community of the Brazilian Amazon received the Industry Award for their collaboration with media artist Refik Anadol on Winds of Yawanawá . The artwork incorporates AI and climate data to create dynamic, ever-changing visuals, inspired heavily by the community's ancestral traditions and spiritual beliefs. Works by the 32 artists finalists of the Digital Art Awards are now on view at PHILLIPS London until 22 May 2025.
Bahrain News Gazette
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Bahrain News Gazette
HOFA Announce New Digital Art Awards, in Collaboration with Exhibition Partner PhillipsX
Sougwen Chung, 'SPECTRAL – Oscillation 1', 2024, Acrylic on Perspex, Created with D.O.U.G._5 Bespoke Robotic System, 152.5 x 152 cm (Image courtesy of Phillips & HOFA) Sougwen Chung, 'SPECTRAL – Oscillation 1', 2024, Acrylic on Perspex, Created with D.O.U.G._5 Bespoke Robotic System, 152.5 x 152 cm (Image courtesy of Phillips & HOFA) Sougwen Chung, 'SPECTRAL – Oscillation 1', 2024, Acrylic on Perspex, Created with D.O.U.G._5 Bespoke Robotic System, 152.5 x 152 cm (Image courtesy of Phillips & HOFA) LONDON, April 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HOFA Gallery announce the launch of the Digital Art Awards , an initiative in collaboration with exhibition partner PhillipsX . Heralding a new era of recognition for digital art. This event celebrates innovative practices at the intersection of art and technology, including AI, immersive and generative media. The awards ceremony will take place on 15 May 2025 , featuring the four key categories of Still Image, Moving Image, Innovation and Experiential, and followed by a public exhibition hosted by Phillips in London, from 16–22 May 2025 . As a highlight of London's spring art calendar, the inaugural awards celebrates the growing cultural significance of digital art and spotlights artists redefining visual culture through algorithmic aesthetics and human-machine collaboration. Visitors can engage with the artworks and ideas shaping the future of digital art. Twenty international finalists will be selected for their work pushing the boundaries of digital creativity. Each category winner will receive a $10,000 USDC commission for a new artwork. Finalists and winners will be chosen by a panel of leading experts in art and innovation. Early applicants include several prominent figures in digital and generative art, such as Sarah Meyohas, Sougwen Chung, Emily Xie, Operator and Kevin Abosch—underscoring the calibre of talent the awards are already attracting. The public exhibition hosted by Phillips will feature the winning works from each category, alongside a curated selection of pieces from some finalists, offering a spectrum of the innovation driving digital art. The awards build on the success of SPACES, HOFA's selling exhibition series, hosted by Phillips through its selling exhibition platform, PhillipsX. This initiative is dedicated to championing artists at the nexus of art, science, and technology. Winning artists will also join this programme, with new works shown at exhibitions, fairs and select institutional collaborations. The Digital Art Awards are proudly backed by Hivemind Capital Partners' Digital Culture Fund. Hivemind is committed to championing established digital artists while nurturing emerging talent and building a sustainable economic foundation for the flourishing digital art ecosystem. Other partners include ApeChain , a global platform for the next generation of creators and culture shakers, and global crypto bank Amina . Elio D'Anna, Co-Founder of HOFA and the Digital Art Awards said: 'The Digital Art Awards represent an important recognition of the artists shaping the future. Through our partnership with Phillips, we are committed to championing innovation and providing a platform for visionary talents to redefine art and technology.' Emma-Louise O'Neill [email protected] A photo accompanying this announcement is available at GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1001079568
