Artists Without Borders

Digital art challenges notions about consumption, and yet its market has evolved with a familiarly distorted sense of value.

“This weird art that some people are doing, this weird art that is sold for high prices—the Cryptokitties that sold for $100,000—that seems to be what the art world wants to talk about,” says Beatriz Helena Ramos, a New York–based artist and co-founder of DADA, a social network for artists. “[But] unless you are talking about the super high-end market, there is always an expectation that what an artist is doing is not a priority or of value.”With extensive experience as an animator, Ramos knows this firsthand. Citing the $260 billion market for animation and digital effects, she bristles at the concept of Patreon: “This idea of ‘artists don’t have money, and they’re not really creating value, but what they’re doing is cool, so let’s help them out.’”