Art of the Digital Age
By Emma Hapner, November 12, 2024
The Digital Age, also known as the Information Age, refers to the period in history when digital technology, particularly computers and the internet, became central to global communication, commerce, and everyday life. In 2024, it seems that the influence of technology is inescapable, from social media, to television, the internet, and our phones that rarely leave our sight. Although this can feel overwhelming at times, many artists are using this influence to their advantage, to create works that are relevant and relatable to our daily lives. Technology has had a profound impact on the world of art, influencing both the creation and the experience of art in a variety of ways. From new tools and mediums to the democratization of access and new forms of artistic expression, the relationship between technology and art has been dynamic and multifaceted.
What I find particularly inspiring, are artists who use digital media to inspire their artworks made using traditional mediums. This juxtaposition of modern imagery with conventional methods is both enticing and thought-provoking. Perhaps it is the promise of the enduring nature of the Fine Arts in a constantly evolving world, or even the tactile, physical nature of an object created in real life, while still honoring and exploring the world we live in today.
Angel Lovecraft, School Lunch, acrylic and airbrush, 37 × 28 in, 2024.
One artist whose work investigates these themes is Angel Lovecraft, a Brooklyn based artist working primarily in acrylic and airbrush.
Angel Lovecraft’s work is infused with a deep longing for the early 2000s, a time marked by the rapid technological shifts that forever altered how we engage with the world. For Lovecraft, this era is more than a nostalgic reference point—it’s a reflection of the emotional complexity that arises from reconciling past experiences with present realities. The early 2000s, defined by the rise of video games, anime, and the digitalization of suburban life, serves as a foundational backdrop for Lovecraft's art. This period represents a unique moment in cultural history, where the boundaries between digital and analog worlds began to blur, leaving a lasting imprint on an entire generation. Lovecraft’s work captures this sense of cultural dislocation, using technology as a lens to explore themes of memory, identity, and personal growth.
Through his mastery of acrylic paints and airbrush techniques, Lovecraft creates highly detailed scenes that evoke the aesthetics of digital imagery, anime, and video games. This choice of medium is intentional, as the smooth, almost hyper-realistic effects of acrylics and airbrush align perfectly with the digitalized environments that define much of the artist’s world. The technique enhances the surreal, dreamlike quality of his pieces—oscillating between the familiar and the fantastical. It is this fusion of traditional mediums with digital-inspired imagery that underscores the artist’s exploration of a time when technology and the everyday world began to intertwine in profound ways.
At the heart of Lovecraft’s work is a response to what he terms "the pains of suburban modernity." This phrase is not merely about the physicality of suburban life but captures the emotional and cultural dissonance of growing up in an environment that is both comfortingly familiar and quietly alienating. In the early 2000s, suburban life was not just a backdrop but a landscape shaped by emerging technologies, where video games and anime became a refuge, a way for young people to navigate feelings of isolation, boredom, and societal pressure. Lovecraft taps into this experience, using familiar cultural symbols to give voice to these deeper, often unspoken anxieties.
The presence of isolation and anxiety permeates his work, which speaks to universal experiences of personal and emotional disconnection. Lovecraft’s use of digital-inspired imagery, combined with his personal recollections, creates a visual language that resonates with those who grew up in the same technology-driven cultural milieu. The inclusion of anime characters and pop culture references is not merely nostalgic but symbolic of how these mediums served as a language of youth—defining how a generation connected with their emotions, identity, and sense of community in an increasingly digital world.
Another artist who work fuses our modern experience of technology with a traditional medium is Qualeasha Wood, an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the complexities of Black female ontology—both as it exists and as it could exist in alternative realities. Qualeasha Wood lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. She received her BA in 2019 from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and her MA in 2021 from Cranbrook Academy of Fine Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Drawing inspiration from her familial connection to textiles, queer craft traditions, and the digital realm, Wood merges traditional craftsmanship with contemporary technological materials in her tufted and tapestry pieces. This fusion of analog and digital media creates a space where the tactile, intimate practices of handcraft intersect with the fluid, virtual landscapes of the internet.
Qualeasha Wood, Girl Dinner, hand embroidery and glass seed beads on jacquard woven cotton, 2023.
Wood’s work explores the tension between the vibrancy of Black Femme culture in online spaces and the political and economic forces that marginalize this identity in the physical world. Navigating both the digital realm—filled with Black Femme avatars, memes, and representations—and the lived realities of Black womanhood, she uses technology to deepen her exploration of identity and representation. The juxtaposition of digital tools like Microsoft Paint with the labor-intensive, tactile process of tufting highlights her investigation into the intersection of digital identity and embodied materiality.
Her tapestries blend digital and traditional techniques, where pixels become stitches—each representing a facet of Black femme identity, both online and offline, before and after the internet. Wood incorporates social media imagery alongside Catholic iconography, weaving a narrative that bridges digital and craft traditions. Drawing inspiration from her family history and a pivotal encounter with Faith Ringgold at the Rhode Island School of Design, she transforms Photoshop compositions into woven works of art. These tapestries often center on her own image, turning digital designs into textured, tactile expressions of personal and cultural identity.
By combining intuitive, analog crafting methods with cybernetic techniques, Wood’s work offers a contemporary exploration of Black American Femme ontology. Her art challenges traditional craft forms while reflecting on the unique position of Black women in digital spaces—where the internet serves as both a site of empowerment and marginalization. The use of internet avatars, digital aesthetics, and online references underscores the powerful ways in which technology shapes identity and self-expression. For Wood, these hybrid approaches are more than a blending of old and new; they represent the potential for creating new narratives about Black Femme identity, where digital and physical realms merge to form complex, dynamic stories.
Christine Tien Wang is also creating innovative work that explores the intersection between our online existence and fine art is a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary artist whose work blends traditional painting with the rapid-fire culture of the digital age. Known for her bold and irreverent approach, Wang examines how contemporary technology—particularly meme culture, social media, and cryptocurrency—shapes our perceptions of identity, value, and culture. Through her paintings, Wang explores the intersection between the ephemeral, fast-paced world of the internet and the labor-intensive, time-consuming process of traditional art-making.
Christine Tien Wang, Mean Girls Crypto, oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches, 152 x 152 cm, 2024.
At the heart of Wang's practice is her engagement with memes—those beloved digital artifacts that spread virally across the internet, shaping conversations, emotions, and entire subcultures. Memes, often funny, exaggerated and fleeting, serve as a mirror to our digital lives, reflecting everything from political commentary to pop culture trends. Wang takes these rapid, disposable images and transforms them into acrylic and oil paintings, creating a space where the fleeting and the permanent collide. By doing so, she forces her audience to slow down and consider these often-dismissed forms of expression more closely, questioning the value of both meme culture and the more traditional medium of painting.
Wang’s approach to painting memes is not just about visualizing internet culture in a traditional medium. It’s about recontextualizing how we interact with digital symbols and their meanings. Memes, as short-lived and ever-changing as they are, often capture the zeitgeist of the moment—whether they are poking fun at societal issues, making political statements, or simply reflecting on the absurdity of modern life. Through her painstaking process of painting, Wang challenges the disposable nature of memes, giving them a more lasting form while also highlighting the tension between the speed of the internet and the slowness of painting. Her work invites viewers to reflect on the speed at which technology moves, and the ways in which our attention spans, cultural values, and consumption habits have been reshaped by digital media.
Wang’s work isn’t just a critique of meme culture or digital economies; it’s an exploration of how technology shapes our experiences and our emotional responses. Through her work, she opens up a conversation about the intersection of capitalism, technology, and culture, questioning how our online lives affect our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us. By translating the chaotic, often absurd world of memes and cryptocurrency into the traditional medium of painting, Wang invites us to think about what these digital symbols mean and how they reflect our changing relationship with technology in both the digital and physical realms.
In summary, technology has not only expanded the tools available to artists but also radically altered the ways in which art is created, shared, experienced, and valued. Whether it’s through new media, interactivity, or the depiction of modern, digital imagery, technology has given artists endless new avenues to explore. The relationship between art and technology continues to evolve, opening new avenues to creativity and human expression.
Featured:
Angel Lovecraft
IG: @angel_lovecraft
Qualeasha Wood
IG: @qualeasha
website: https://www.qualeasha.com/
Christine Tien Wang
IG: @christinetwang
website: https://www.christinetienwang.com/
