If institutions are gradually absorbing digital art into their collections and exhibitions, artists aren’t waiting around for validation. Instead, they’re forcing the issue.

This spring, the collaborative duo Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon are co-curating “Strange Rules” at Palazzo Diedo during the Venice Biennale, exploring the concept of “Protocol Art” on one of the art world’s most prestigious stages. Just recently, Jack Butcher launched networked.art, a new foundation positioned explicitly as “by artists, for artists”. Meanwhile, Tyler Hobbs has orchestrated a new collaboration “Please Respond” involving a group of ten generative artists riffing on each other’s code in the manner of a Surrealist “exquisite corpse”. RGBMTL, the annual artists-curating-artists event in Montreal, is also returning for its fifth edition this summer, August 28-29.

At a moment of transition, when the worlds of digital and contemporary art are still engaged in fractious flirtation, these new ventures bespeak a trend of artists wresting control of the curation, distribution, and cultivation of critical discussion around their works. At Right Click Save, we will always support artists in setting the terms of the debate; because being artist-led doesn’t mean being amateur, it means putting the principal generators of cultural value first.

— Danielle King, Head of Community at Right Click Save