The Best of Times

2024 was a big year. It’s so hard to tell living through it; it’s hard to hear clearly in the din of noise. It was also a year of contrasts. It was the best of times, it was—you know. Let’s start with the good news—the age of wisdom, the epoch of belief, the season of Light. Digital art had a moment in 2024—actually it had several moments. The first was February to March. February saw the Pompidou, Whitney and MOMI all open major historical generative art exhibitions with shows on Vera Molnár, Harold Cohen and Auriea Harvey, respectively. Later in the month, MoMA announced a blockchain-based exhibition with Feral File that included artists like Yoko Ono and Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst—their names will come up again. Just a few weeks later, Tina Rivers Ryan—a renowned digital curator whose Electric Op also appears this year—announced she would be taking over as editor at Artforum, one of contemporary art’s premier publications. This came just after Taschen released its mammoth On NFTs book by Robert Alice studio during Bright Moments and NFT Paris. It was a big couple of months for media and digital art—a proper moment. It would have been the highlight of many prior years on this Timeline. But 2024 was only really getting started. Did I mention that Herndon and Dryhurst had big years? Besides the aforementioned MoMA show, they also participated in the Whitney Biennial and took over the entirety of Serpentine North for this author’s work of the year, The Call. By the middle of the year, we were treated to one of the year’s most unique events, the historic Generative Art Summit in Berlin that celebrated the form from its analog roots to its turn to digital computation. Organized by Dr. Susanne Paech from the HWF Foundation, the conference included some of the most impactful figures in generative art over the last sixty years: artists, thinkers, writers, gallerists, academics and curators. It won’t be possible to repeat the event in the same way beyond the logistical challenges due to the availability of the attendees moving forward. This author was lucky to be a part of it and speak on behalf of Le Random with Dr Paech and thefunnyguys. The second half of the year included more major exhibitions. First up were MUDAM’s Radical Software and Buffalo AKG’s Electric Op in September. November saw LACMA’s Digital Witness—part of Getty’s much larger art and technology themed event PST ART—and perhaps the event of the year, Tate’s Electric Dreams. Institutions like MoMA, Tate, Pompidou, LACMA, Whitney, Serpentine, Artforum and more demonstrated serious and impactful commitment and interest to digital art in 2024. Without question, this second half of the year was another moment. In fact, that’s exactly how Tina Rivers Ryan explained it to me in early 2025. Now for the not-so-great news—the age of foolishness, the epoch of incredulity, the season of Darkness. 2024 saw both the legacy and digital art worlds struggle in seeming coordination with museums laying off staff, commercial galleries closing and auction houses struggling. At the same time, the digital and Web3 world saw galleries close, marketplaces shutdown and free-minting platforms gain in popularity. Yet some marketplaces thrived in 2024, including Verse and Fellowship in particular, while Art Blocks, Highlight and fxhash completed partial pivots to continue their great work. 2024 was a Dickensian year—about the haves and have nots. The history books will and should remember it as a year of Light for digital art—certainly it had its moments as Tina Rivers Ryan described to me in early 2025. But for many, the lights turned out and perhaps for good. In the spirit of this Timeline’s broad perspective, 2024 was undoubtedly a momentous year. It was perhaps the year you could say with confidence that the digital, Web3 and legacy art worlds were as connected as ever.