인터넷 아트(Internet Art)란?

넷 아트(Net Art)로도 불리운다. 인터넷과 네트워크 기술 자체를 창작의 매체이자 배포의 수단으로 삼는 현대 미디어 아트의 한 갈래다. 텍스트, 이미지, 소리, 애니메이션, 실시간 데이터 등 다양한 디지털 요소를 결합하여 표현할 수 있다. 미술관이나 갤러리라는 물리적인 공간의 권위를 넘어서 전 세계 누구나 웹 브라우저를 통해 언제 어디서든 작품을 감상할 수 있으며, 관람객이 단순히 작품을 보기만 하는 것이 아니라, 링크를 클릭하고 댓글을 달거나 데이터를 입력하는 등 작품의 일부로 참여하게 만든다. 

 

*artport는 휘트니뮤지엄 미술관의 인터넷 아트 전용 온라인 갤러리 플랫폼이다.

 

Image: Screenshots from select projects commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art for its artport website. Image courtesy New Information

 

 

WHITNEY MUSEUM PRESENTS A MAJOR SURVEY OF INTERNET ART EXPLORING 25 YEARS OF ARTPORT

 

The exhibition, opening November 21, explores the longstanding history and legacy of internet art at the Whitney and the evolution of artport, the Museum’s pioneering online gallery space.

 

New York, NY, September 9, 2026 — The Whitney Museum of American Art presents artport: A History of Internet Art, a major exhibition marking the 25-year anniversary of artport, the Museum’s online gallery space for net art commissions. artport: A History of Internet Art is the most comprehensive exhibition of web-based artworks to be presented in the United States in a museum setting. Since its launch in 2001, the platform has established the Whitney as a leader in the field of net art, supporting artists whose practices engage with an ever-evolving online environment. With more than 100 works commissioned specifically for the Whitney’s online space, artport has played a key role in advancing the Museum’s collection of digital and net art. For more than two decades, artport has provided a snapshot of the wide-ranging artistic practices on the internet, reflecting the ways artists have responded to changing technologies, evolving platforms, and online cultures.

 

Presented simultaneously online and in the galleries, artport: A History of Internet Art surveys the artport projects commissioned by the Whitney over the last quarter-century. The exhibition is organized by the commission categories that have shaped and defined artport over time, including the Gate Pages (2001–06), the ongoing Commissions series (2001– ), and the Sunrise/Sunset series (2009–2024), along with its successor, On the Hour (2024– ). Across these sections, visitors will encounter projects spanning a wide variety of formats, from code-focused works and data visualization to nonlinear narrative, worldbuilding, gaming environments, and AI-driven net art. The open floor plan in the galleries creates the effect of floating browser windows, bringing the history of internet art into physical space. Together, the works in the exhibition highlight the ways artists have used the internet both as a place and a medium for artistic experimentation.

 

“Over time, artport has become a story about both the evolution of net art and the ways in which the internet has profoundly affected our lives, changing how we communicate, present ourselves, and negotiate the porous boundaries between the virtual and the offline world,” said Christiane Paul, Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney Museum. “The exhibition highlights how artists have engaged with the same topics—such as identity, privacy, autonomy, and aesthetics—through rapid changes in technological platforms and internet culture from 2001–2026. The artworks use, subvert, and repurpose Web technologies, probing the creative potential of the internet and asking us to reflect on what is gained and lost in online interaction.”

 

“Twenty-five years of artport is an extraordinary milestone, not just for the Whitney, but for the entire field of digital art,” said Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. “Since 2001, the Whitney has been at the forefront of supporting artists experimenting with the internet and new technologies in ways that feel increasingly relevant. This exhibition celebrates that groundbreaking history while reaffirming our commitment to championing the artists who continue to push net art in new and unexpected directions.”

 

artport: A History of Internet Art is organized by Christiane Paul, Curator of Digital Art, with David Lisbon, Curatorial Assistant, and Colin Brooks, Head of Digital Development.

 

 

Exhibition Overview – artport: A History of Internet Art

artport: A History of Internet Art surveys the past 25 years of net art and features more than 100 works commissioned specifically for artport. Bringing together the Gate Pages, Commissions, the Sunrise/Sunset series, and its successor, On the Hour, the exhibition traces the trajectory of artistic practices on the internet and the evolution of the Whitney’s online gallery space. Since 2001, artport has provided a window into the diverse practices that engage a continuously shifting online environment, serving as the Museum's platform for commissioning and presenting net art. Working across generative code, data visualization, nonlinear narrative, worldbuilding, gaming environments, and AI-driven net art, the artists in the exhibition explore how understandings of identity, privacy, surveillance, and the boundaries between online and offline life have been reshaped by the internet.

 

A comprehensive presentation of artport’s Commissions includes 30 original works created between 2001 and the present. Ranging from data visualizations and hyperlinked narratives to virtual worlds and AI-driven projects, the works examine the breadth and development of web-based art. The exhibition presents all the artport Commissions, some of them adapted as installations for the physical gallery space, arranged by shared topics or artistic approach. Featuring pioneering artists like Auriea Harvey, Golan Levin, the McCoys, and Casey Reas, alongside more recent works by Moreshin Allahyari, Nancy Baker Cahill, Leo Castañeda, and Operator, the Commissions explore worldbuilding, gaming environments, museum systems and structures, and the aesthetics of code, considering the intersections and frictions between online and offline experience.

 

The exhibition also features the Gate Pages, monthly commissions presented on artport between 2001 and 2006. Taking the form of “splash pages,” introductory screens popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s that served as entry points before a website’s content, each Gate Page functioned as a portal to the artist’s own sites and projects. Comprising a range of artistic approaches to the format, there are 57 Gate Pages featured online on artport, and a selection of complex, standalone projects on view in the gallery. This section of the exhibition captures a formative moment in net art history and includes artists like Tina LaPorta, George Legrady, Jillian McDonald, Keith + Mendi Obadike, Mark Napier, and Wolfgang Staehle, among others. Gate Pages trace the key narratives and artistic approaches to the Web in the early 2000s, from self-representation before the emergence of social media and inquiries into autonomy in online ecosystems to the creative use of websites and search tools as a medium.

 

Presented in the center of the galleries, the Sunrise/Sunset series, and its successor, On the Hour, capture the core of artistic practice on the internet: the intervention in existing online spaces. The Sunrise/Sunset works activated the Whitney’s website twice a day at sunrise and sunset in New York City from 2009 to 2024, while the current On the Hour projects, which launched in 2024, mark every full hour around the clock. Each project unfolds over a time frame of ten to thirty seconds, disrupting, replacing, or engaging with the Museum’s website as an information environment. Using whitney.org as their habitat, the works play with the perception of time and space, with sequences revealing themselves over the course of a week or specific hours of the day. The two series will run chronologically in the galleries, displayed one after the other on four screens arranged in a rectangle. Eighteen Sunrise/Sunset projects by artists, including American Artist, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, JODI, and Rafael Rozendaal, will be shown on the east- and west-facing displays, with the three iterations of On the Hour by Peter Burr, Maya Man, and Frank WANG Yefeng presented on the north and south screens.

 

The artport anniversary exhibition will include the world premiere of Human Unreadable Act III, by the artist duo Operator. This live performance is the culmination of Human Unreadable, Operator’s seminal generative choreography work unfolding in three acts since 2023. Act III is a multimedia performance and examination of the artists’ negotiations between the body, ambition, and technology. The performances will take place in the Whitney’s Susan and John Hess Family Theater on November 19, 21, and 22.