From The Best of Canadian Art 2013 by Sky Goodden
 

The Net Artist

Their chosen medium lacks most understood parameters (objecthood, temporality, salability, and viability through traditional exhibiting platforms) but net artists are winning the day — and a cast of Canadians is particularly triumphant this year. The artworld’s first major exhibition of GIF, digital, and net art, the Wrong Biennial (hosted by the São Paulo contemporary art organization ROJO) enlisted Canada’s Lorna Mills to curate one of its thirty pavilions; she did well to shift the biennial’s focus from abstract experimentation to conceptually-bent interventions by Jennifer Chan, Rea McNamara, Claudia Maté, and Jeremy Bailey and Kristen D. Schaffer. Elsewhere, we’ve seen the AGO’s David Bowie exhibition decorated with local artists’ GIF projections; artist-run Eastern Bloc highlighting Jennifer Chan and Jennifer Cherniack’s Web 1.0, pre-DSL aesthetics; Jeremy Bailey confirming his self-ascribed title of “Famous New Media Artist” by presenting at the New Museum; artist Jon Rafman make a logical progression from Google Street View to the darker realms of video-gaming; and Montreal’s DHC/Art and Toronto’s TIFF Lightbox, respectively, engaging in presentations of leading net artists Cory Arcangel and Chicago’s GIF-happy Eric Fleischauer and Jason Lazarus. We fear that soon enough, we won’t have to leave the house to get our fix.

year of the GIF > year of the GIF > year of the GIF...

happy new year of the GIF!!!!
- bill 12-31-2013 5:27 pm

Actually 2012 was The Year of the GIF, and 2013 is The Year After The Year of the GIF, so tomorrow we will start to celebrate The Year After The Year After The Year of the GIF. (just gets better and better)
- L.M. 12-31-2013 7:02 pm