Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, head of Arts at TriliTech and a veteran of the Web3 art space, argues that today's digital art represents a continuous lineage stretching back to the 1950s. As technology becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, the boundaries between analog and digital artistic experiences have become nearly impossible to define. Contemporary artists working in traditional media inevitably engage with digital platforms, whether for sharing their work or drawing inspiration, making it difficult to find art completely untouched by digital tools.
The term "digital art" itself has become increasingly complex to define. Some interpret it broadly to include any artwork shaped by technology, while others reserve the classification for digital-native practices created entirely within digital spaces. Artamonovskaja, who has worked in the Web3 art space for nearly a decade, offers her perspective on this evolving landscape. "You have both professionals in the broader creative economy or artists whose works are exhibited in traditional institutions such as museums, falling into this category," she explains.
According to Artamonovskaja, true digital art relies fundamentally on digital technology not just as tools, but as the medium itself for both product and process. This form allows experimentation across various areas such as lighting, texture, movement, and interactivity that traditional media cannot always convey. "It's not just about using a screen as a canvas, but often reinventing what the idea of a canvas even means," she notes.
The Tezos blockchain has emerged as a significant hub for digital and experimental art through platforms like Hic et Nunc, Objkt, and fx(hash). Artists and collectors on these NFT platforms quickly adopted blockchain technology for minting and selling works. The Tezos Foundation formalized its support for digital art between late 2021 and early 2022, launching major initiatives that positioned it as an artist-first hub within the Web3 ecosystem. High-profile partnerships with Art Basel and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art using the Tezos blockchain have established it as a vital conduit for Web3 creativity.
Since Artamonovskaja's appointment as head of arts at TriliTech in 2024, she has played a central role in maintaining an artist-first framework within the Tezos ecosystem. Her priorities include sustainability, affordability, and inclusivity, amplified through programming that raises global awareness of digital art while empowering existing talent with meaningful growth opportunities. Marketplaces on Tezos like Objkt, along with partnerships with institutions such as the Museum of the Moving Image, Serpentine, and ArtScience Museum, help contextualize digital art within broader cultural landscapes.
"Our current programs also encompass a range of activities, including residencies, publications, and exhibitions, nurturing a creative environment that fosters artists' career trajectories," Artamonovskaja explains. One major upcoming initiative will take place during Paris Photo 2025, where the Tezos Foundation will partner with Paris-based Artverse gallery. Curator Grida Jang Hyewon will present a group booth featuring work by six artists who originate from or are deeply shaped by Asian cultures.
Educational initiatives represent another key priority for the foundation. The Tezos Foundation has supported several educational projects, including WAC Lab, which taught professionals from cultural institutions about blockchain best practices, as well as artist onboarding programs like Newtro, focusing on Latin American artists. Through these ongoing initiatives, the Tezos ecosystem serves respected voices in the digital art space, including bitforms gallery, the Second Guess curatorial collective, and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Artamonovskaja emphasizes the importance of connecting contemporary digital art to its decades-long history. This lineage begins with early net art and extends back to Nam June Paik's pioneering inquiry into media and technology as forms of expression. The history runs from algorithmic plotter works by Manfred Mohr and Vera Molnár, to Alan Rath's kinetic sculptures fusing electronics with movement, to Paik's groundbreaking video art, and to browser-based experiments of 1990s net artists like Cory Arcangel and Olia Lialina.
"I've always been fascinated by how forward-thinking some of the artists were," Artamonovskaja reflects. "Seeing Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway in person, its glowing map of America alive with moving images, makes you reflect on how foretelling his vision was to today's hyperconnected, media-saturated world." Each era redefined what it meant to create and experience art in dialogue with new technologies, shifting from producing singular digital images to building works that exist natively within global networks.
The Paintboxed Tezos World Tour paid tribute to this historical lineage, spotlighting the heritage of the Quantel Paintbox, the legendary 1980s commercial computer designed for artists and famously used by David Hockney and Keith Haring. "The digital art we make today most certainly belongs to a long lineage dating back to the 1950s, with interactive systems, initiatives such as E.A.T. and tools like the Quantel Paintbox," Artamonovskaja points out.
Over the past year, the Paintboxed Tezos World Tour appeared at major art events in Miami, Paris, and New York, culminating in a pivotal exhibition at the Digital Art Mile in Basel. The Basel presentation was accompanied by a catalogue of works produced by early pioneers such as David Hockney and Kim Mannes-Abbott, alongside a younger generation of artists like Simon Denny, Coldie, and Gretchen Andrew. "Recognizing these histories enriches our understanding and positions Web3 art not as a fleeting trend but as a continuation of decades of creative innovation," she says.
The digital realm has opened vast possibilities for artists, including dynamic experimentation, global reach, and direct control over their work. Over the past decade, social media has reshaped the artist's role, shifting it away from reliance on galleries and institutions toward more direct relationships with audiences. "Some artists have become their own marketers, community builders, and storytellers, shaping not only how their work is seen but also how it's valued," Artamonovskaja observes.
This shift has influenced not just the market side of art but the medium itself. Many artists, including those working in traditional media, have begun creating works either conceived for screens or engaging with them from conceptual or critical perspectives. The rise of blockchain and NFTs has added new layers of transaction and interactivity. Within the Tezos ecosystem, sales platforms like objkt.com have nurtured their own curatorial voices and collector bases.
Context remains crucial for digital art curation and establishing value and recognition. "Digital art curation has evolved rapidly over the past several years," Artamonovskaja notes, having witnessed these shifts firsthand during her nearly decade-long career in the space. "It may not seem like a significant amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but in the Web3 world, everything is accelerated."
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the traditional art world to embrace virtual environments en masse. In blockchain and digitally-native art, technological advancements that reshape audience interaction and experience occur every few months. Curating digital art extends beyond simply displaying works to building trust and transparency with both artists and viewers. Given the market's size and novelty, curators often serve dual roles as art dealers, helping artists position their work and navigate commercial and technical aspects.
"In many ways, the Web3 market functions as an accelerated mirror to the traditional art world, compressing the cycles of creation, curation, sales, and audience engagement into days or weeks instead of months or years," she continues. This acceleration makes the discovery of emerging talent more accessible, with blockchain-enabled provenance, global marketplaces, and always-on communities making the process faster, more transparent, and often more efficient.
In May 2022, the Tezos Foundation unveiled its Permanent Art Collection (PAC), curated by Misan Harriman, as its first official high-profile program dedicated to celebrating and elevating digital art created within its ecosystem. This marked the beginning of an ongoing commitment to showcase and acquire works by diverse, emerging artists. Artamonovskaja has been collecting digital art and NFTs for years, identifying significant works based on whether pieces move her or signal fresh perspectives from artists.
"Factors such as strong artistic vision, thoughtful use of technology, and meaningful cultural context are incredibly important," she explains. Novelty, both conceptual and visual, plays a significant role in platforms like Objkt, which frequently highlight advanced interactive pieces ranging from minimalist HTML sketches to fully immersive browser-based games and on-chain data experiments.
Collecting digital art raises new questions around preservation and conservation, as these works often depend entirely on the technologies through which they are created, circulated, displayed, and stored. "Preservation begins with recognizing that it's not just about maintaining the still or moving image as we see it on a platform," Artamonovskaja explains. "We need to maintain a relationship between the smart contract and the output, care about archival files, higher resolution exhibition copies, and safeguard the metadata and environments in which works are intended to reside."
Ensuring worthwhile documented provenance for blockchain-registered art requires active collaboration between artists, technologists, archivists, and node operators. One of the most significant risks across blockchains has been marketplace shutdowns, though core teams and communities have preserved works through open-source access and decentralization benefits. On Tezos, every artwork collected on Objkt is stored on IPFS, a decentralized network designed for long-term preservation, with safeguards ensuring art remains secure even if platforms go offline.
Regarding artificial intelligence's impact on art, Artamonovskaja sees both opportunities and risks. When approached as an instrument, AI can help extend an artist's vision, with its value depending on how intentionally it's applied. Some artists like Dr. Elgammal credit AI as creative partners, while others like Ivona Tau and Mario Klingemann write their own systems, shaping algorithms as much as final products. Artists such as Trevor Paglen and Kevin Abosch engage with AI critically, questioning its politics, biases, and social implications.
"For me, the most compelling AI art is not simply about the image produced, but about the relationship between human intention and machine capability, and the conceptual story that emerges from that relationship," she reflects. The emphasis remains not on the medium itself but on the critical and creative approach to it, transforming artworks into tools for better understanding the broader sociological, anthropological, and political implications of new technologies in human existence.
