The Best Digital Art of 2025, According to Curators, Artists, and Critics

Although artists have been in conversation with web-based live streaming since the early days of internet art, surprisingly few artists have engaged with the distinctly jarring, recursive, and profoundly weird visual and cultural landscape that we know as 2020s streaming culture. American artists face this point collapse (2025) This work weaves together (quasi-)social power dynamics and cinematic hallmarks of streaming culture so deftly that upon first encounter, I wasn’t sure if it was a novel, a documentary, or the nebulous space in between. Of all the works I’ve seen this year, collapse It left the most lasting mark – one that was deeply “of its time” and one that I keep coming back to. —Cass Fino-Radin, Vice President of Art and Technology at Canyon

This summer, a few friends and I drove to Newburgh to attend the opening of Zarina’s solo exhibition at Visit. her video work true feelings (2025) is the centerpiece of the show, alongside a therapist’s office-style black leather lounge chair engraved with the words “COLLAPSE IS THE OPENING.” Over the course of 32 minutes, true feelings Oscillating between self-service TikTok compilations and AI-generated black-and-white videos overlaid with soft, feminine voices offering life advice. Zarina’s musical background shines through in all of her work, as she cuts and compiles found footage into satisfying syncopated rhythms. As I watched this article, I found myself falling into two modes: critiquing this type of content, and genuinely craving the life-changing advice it promised to provide. The way Zarina works is aware of this paradox. She understands the complexities of online consumption inside and out. —Maya Man, an artist focusing on contemporary identity culture on the Internet

This fall, I met Korean-born internet artist Yehwan Song at the Columbia University MFA Open Studio in New York. Surrounded by her work at Pioneer Works, user-friendly interfaces—often thought to define how we experience the Internet—became just another conceptual framework. There are endless possibilities and collisions outside this framework, as seen in her non-universal web interfaces and performance-based interactions. This year she has already attracted attention with exhibitions at Vanguard Works and Tate Britain. What to do next? —Hayoung Chung, Curator, Space ZeroOne

More than a decade ago – although I no longer remember in what context – Marina Zurko described herself as using humor in the midst of widespread ecological indifference. Her exhibition “Separate Worlds” is presented with the New Modern Commission The river is a circleBoth works are on display at the Whitney this year, which is poignant in this regard. The dismantling of the Environmental Protection Agency and other regulatory efforts are offset by other political actions, perhaps like the plastic bags floating above the sinkhole in the 2012 work Mesocosm (Wink, Texas). It’s dark and funny and makes me feel hungry and grateful for any small environmental effort. At least we try to maintain a spirit of generosity that transcends the instant gratification of consumerism. —Charlotte Kent, associate professor of visual culture at Montclair State University

Sarah’s friend Just in time baby (2025) uncovered the libidinal economy behind many interesting experiments with so-called artificial intelligence. Her work deftly negotiates the interplay of desire, authorship, and financial power. This work unsettlingly reveals how parasocial demands and market power oppress the artist’s body as data, avatars, and transferable surfaces. In the group show “Set Our Skin on Fire” at the Sculpture Center, Friend displays images of her ghostly digital avatar – images created in her likeness – on her phone. The images are generated through a collaborative but contentious process in which collectors purchase NFTs that give them the right to submit prompts describing actions for the avatar to perform. Not surprisingly, the tips range from funny and amateurish to crazy and explicit. ——Eileen Isagon Skyers, writer, curator and artist with ten years of experience in media arts

Inside Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley’s House illusion (2025) at the Serpentine Gallery in London immediately plunges you into a satirical gaming environment set in a post-apocalyptic, horror-filled speculative future where unease, control and broken social connections shape how you move through the space. The physical exhibition begins with terms and conditions printed on the wall and a magazine like rulebook next to it, making it clear from the start that participation is a prerequisite and that the game shapes participation. I’m interested in borrowing world-building from games, and this show leans completely into that, using absurdity to explore how humans interact with technology and each other rather than flattening these issues into something crude. move through illusion It feels like a strange roller coaster ride, blending interactive media with real political and moral tension, all framed by an intentional curation and production by Tamar Clarke-Brown and the Serpentine Technologies team. ——Danielle Paterson, art technology curator, art consultant and researcher

This ambitious interactive installation activates the High Line gallery windows in a completely unique way, creating a shared experience centered around timelessness and loss. I love how this work incorporates human attunement into the act of viewing, making the resulting output feel both personal and interpersonal. —Kelani Nichole, technology expert, founder of TRANSFER new media art gallery and data cooperative

This work was on display in 2023 but was only exhibited this year, and it is precisely because of its restraint that I have always thought about it. The work recreates the anti-immigration riots in Rotterdam that have largely disappeared from collective memory, even among those directly affected. Drawing on sparse archival material and carefully curated re-enactments, Khanna avoids dramatizing or sensationalizing the violence and instead reconstructs a structurally forgotten narrative. In an age of contentious digital discourse, this moderation does not dilute the work; it makes it sharp—Cem A., artist with a background in anthropology

pet These include some of my favorite thinkers, Bogna Konior and Maya Kronic, in an AI-generated NSFW human-animal hybrid avatar. These characters tap into male desire, evoking the feeling of a digital pet while also reflecting on our relationship to potential space.——Günseli Yalcinkaya, writer, researcher, and online folklorist

Last but not least, my choice: I watched How to Get to Zero before Pioneer Works closed, and I’m so glad I did. The exhibition brings together work created by Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne over the past decade as collaborators and independent practitioners. On display are many of their artistic inventions in response to the climate crisis, using art to encourage audiences to engage in direct action. I am particularly interested given that I spend time researching and reporting on online markets offset (2023-25), an online carbon credit market in which CO2 capture is represented not by planted trees but by acts of industrial sabotage.