As our actions and expressions become increasingly interwoven with rapidly advancing technologies—immersed as we are in a constant, reciprocal flow between virtual and physical realities—artists are engaging more deeply with digital spaces. Given that, it makes sense to question a cultural hierarchy that draws rigid distinctions between digital art, digital-native art and traditional fine art. We asked Adam Heft Berninger, an artist, curator and, as of last month, the founder of New York’s Heft Gallery, for his thoughts on the intersection of art and technology.
Heft is, Berninger told Observer, dedicated to the art of a new era. “I really wanted to open a gallery just to show something completely new, bringing something fresh to New York in relation to what is going on all around us.” But while his focus is firmly on new media, technology and the digital sphere, he deliberately resists calling the space a digital art gallery, wary of the reductive assumptions it often carries. “I find it very difficult to define digital art; it becomes increasingly complex year after year, as now much of what we do touches digital technologies—from using our phones, A.I. integrating with our daily processes, digital manipulation of photography and even source materials for painters and sculptors. Instead of trying to define it, I move in the other direction. I don’t talk about this as a digital gallery at all. To me, the digital world is the native world. It’s part of our existence and our culture now.”
Heft has little in common with spaces that host entertainment-driven immersive, gamified, or spectacle-oriented digital art; instead, the gallery champions artists who are meaningfully pioneering and critically investigating new systems of expression, turning algorithms, A.I. and code into tangible, physical works rather than screen-based experiences. “All the artists that I work with are using systems in some way to create their artworks, and that could be algorithms, artificial intelligence, handwritten instructions and rules,” Berninger explained. “I find that the application of these types of rules yields really interesting, unexpected results, even within the parameters that society has already made available.”
Berninger’s background as a programmer contributes to his ability to recognize artists truly working at the bleeding edge. “I’ve always been interested in how my technology background can inform and support an artistic vision,” he said, recalling the late-nineties experiments in creative tech he conducted while pursuing a Fine Art degree. “I’ve always kind of captured these different worlds, between fine art, design and technology, which have always been part of my life and my career. Sometimes they’ve intersected, and sometimes they’ve been adjacent.”
With the opening of his gallery, those threads are finally converging to shape how he collaborates with artists, interprets their work and considers its broader cultural relevance. For him, what’s most compelling is watching artists use technology not just as a tool but as a critical medium that deepens our understanding of innovation as we continue to adapt to it.
The intersection of art and technology has only recently begun to receive serious curatorial and academic attention, and there remains a clear need for more spaces—both institutional and commercial—that can provide a rigorous critical framework for engaging with it. For Berninger, who ran an online-only platform for years, establishing that critical context and building a physical exhibition platform where such works could be presented and perceived on par with more traditional forms of art was an exciting prospect.
“We are taking a new approach to how we show these works and the way that we operate with artists and collectors,” Berninger said. He’s committed to using traditional physical formats and contextualized presentations rooted in art history to ensure these artists are seen as integral to the broader art ecosystem, instead of outliers. “Often, artists working with technologies are viewed as a niche, and even presented as ‘different,’ but I think many of these artists are already serving a bigger audience. Exposing them to that audience is our mission.” Proper context, he added, is the key.
Berninger’s goal is to foster awareness and appreciation of emerging forms of artistic expression, and he’s committed to keeping the space active and experimental. The gallery’s programming includes discussions and panels with artists and curators, performances, guided art experiences, workshops with artists and portfolio reviews,” he said. Inviting people to learn directly from the artists and creating opportunities for in-person engagement can be a powerful way to shift perceptions around these works.
Some of the collectors who work with Berninger are typical digital art enthusiasts who aren’t seeking works for their walls but instead hold pieces as tokens in their crypto wallets, but with Heft, he’s focused on engaging more traditional art collectors—those who may not yet see these practices as integral to the art of our time, but could. “Some audiences fight back, but when I’m able to have a conversation, it becomes a lot easier to get over those hurdles and find something that interests them,” he said
In a city like New York, where many young professionals are already involved in tech-related fields or hold tech-specific investments, Berninger sees a clear opportunity to introduce this kind of art to a new audience with the potential to become active supporters. “I’m excited about that. And probably even people who don’t consider themselves collectors yet will be attracted to this type of art,” he mused. Then there are the digital-native collectors who are beginning to invest in significant physical works. “Combining these segments is a way to get more exposure for these artists, and it’s the core of our business model.”
In line with its cross-media approach, Heft Gallery’s inaugural show, “Facetune Portraits: Universal Beauty,” features a provocative new series of oil paintings by Gretchen Andrew that confront the rise of A.I.-generated beauty standards and their effects on self-perception in the digital age. A lineup of hyperrealistic portraits of Miss Universe contestants hangs on the gallery walls like an army of the uncanny—their serene, flawless beauty made unsettling by a series of jarring, visibly disruptive touch-ups and edits.
These deliberate distortions expose how digital manipulation is constantly shaping and refining images in pursuit of an unattainable ideal of perfection. The human presence in Andrew’s figures is eclipsed by the algorithmic interventions common to platforms like TikTok and Zoom, revealing an uneasy tension between our unfiltered selves and our algorithmically “perfected” identities. As a searing critique of the global standardization of beauty, Andrew’s portraits both utilize and interrogate technology, serving as a meditation on the medium itself and on the digital narratives and edits through which we now construct and display our idea of the self.
The significance of Andrew’s work—situated at the intersection of semiotic and sociological critique—was confirmed by the Whitney Museum’s swift acquisition of two pieces from the series even before the show opened.
Given how deeply embedded technology already is in our daily lives, it’s striking how few galleries are showing work by artists engaging with these tools. The traditional art world—especially on the corporate mega-gallery end—remains tethered to outdated canons of taste shaped by previous generations of dealers and collectors, which may no longer resonate with the rising generation. “You have these periods where collectors are looking for something new, some new energy,” Berninger said, pointing out that digital art now offers a rare kind of accessibility for early supporters—a window that only opens at the onset of a new artistic movement.
He believes we’ve reached a critical inflection point: digital art is gaining visibility not only online, but increasingly by institutions and at fairs. “It’s the time for this to break out,” he said with conviction. Forging connections between collectors and this new avant-garde is central to his mission, and he is unequivocal in his belief that digital art will define this moment in the art world, both locally and globally. “This is now the most exciting movement out there, and I want to get a broader audience exposed to these artworks and how relevant they are.” He’s excited to be working with artists pushing boundaries of what new tech can already do and the potential they hold. “I’m working with a few artists who are well-versed in gaming and digital environments for a performance piece. I think there’s so much that can be done to explore the creative potential of these new technological tools as a medium.”
