(NEW YORK, NY – June 21, 2023) — Rhizome is pleased to announce its upcoming benefit, taking place on Wednesday, June 28, will celebrate the history and future of the non-profit as the definitive organization for the preservation and advancement of digital art. The event commemorates the 20-year anniversary of Rhizome’s affiliation with the New Museum, which has further cemented the non-profit as a leading voice for digital art, and celebrates 27 years since the organization’s establishment in 1996.
The event also marks the launch of Rhizome’s year-long partnership with TRLab, who is a sponsor of the benefit along with MoonPay.
“Rhizome offers unique value as an institution of long standing in a fast-changing field,” said Makayla Bailey and Michael Connor, Rhizome Co-Directors. “Our longevity is due in no small part to the New Museum’s visionary partnership. And thanks to the invaluable contributions of our honorees and our community, and partners like TRLab, Rhizome will continue to play an integral role in both preserving and creating the histories of born-digital art.”
Benefit Honorees
The Champions
The evening celebrates the Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum Lisa Phillips, who played a pivotal role in establishing the museum's enduring affiliation with Rhizome, which began in 2003, and artist Mark Tribe, who founded Rhizome as an email community for some of the first artists working online.
The Visionaries
Rhizome’s benefit also celebrates artists Ix Shells, a leader of generative art today, Lillian Schwartz, a pioneer of Computer Art, and longtime rhizome collaborator Rafaël Rozendaal. In 2021, Rozendaal gifted Rhizome the largest benefit donation in the organization’s history, directing half the sale of his platform Endless Nameless, a collection of 1,000 NFTs created through a generative algorithm, to the non-profit for 164 ETH.
20+ Years of Rhizome
Established in 1996, Rhizome is internationally renowned for its esteemed 7x7 program, which saw visionary artist Kevin McCoy mint the first NFT artwork nearly a decade ago; the Net Art Anthology initiative, which chronicles the evolution of net art from its nascent stages in the 1980s to the present; its curatorial stewardship of digital art, demonstrated through exhibitions, commissions, publications, and public programming; and its early support of generative art. Since 2003, Rhizome has been an affiliate in residence at the New Museum, working with the institution to push the boundaries of contemporary art and technology. In 2022, Rhizome appointed Makayla Bailey and Michael Connor as Co-Directors, further bolstering its leadership team.
NFTs
At the benefit, TRLab will launch SEED, the official genesis NFT collaboration from Rhizome and TRLab. SEED is a free, interactive multimedia experience that traces the evolution of generative art and creative A.I. through Rhizome's rich archive, highlighting the work of prominent Net artists and pioneers. Throughout the collaboration, TRLab and Rhizome will jointly introduce collectible digital keepsakes inspired by landmark commissions and exhibitions, beginning with SEED 1: Postcards from StarryNight – an exclusive and limited-edition series of NFTs derived from the preserved early 1990s artwork StarryNight by Mark Tribe, Alex Galloway and Martin Wattenberg.
“We are delighted to partner with Rhizome for this unique collaboration, which will help shine a light on the seminal role Rhizome has played in generative art from its earliest explorations,” said TRLab CEO Audrey Ou. “TRLab is known within the art world for using the inherent capabilities of Web3 and blockchain technology to create online art experiences that both educate and entertain, as we help on-board new audiences into the growing global community of digital art collectors."
Rhizome’s “New” Generative Logo
Earlier this year, Rhizome unveiled its new website and generative logo by Mindy Seu, Laura Coombs and Mark Beasley, Lead Developer at Rhizome. Inspired by the organization’s history, the new Rhizome logo references its 2001 iteration, designed by Markus Weisbeck and Frank Hauschild of Surface.de. Billed as “the world’s first generative logo,” it was rendered anew each time it was viewed, based on the IP addresses of the last four visitors. The new logo evokes the form and function of the previous iteration, responding to the distance of recent website visitors from Rhizome’s office in New York City.
ABOUT RHIZOME
Rhizome champions born-digital art and culture through commissions, exhibitions, scholarship, and digital preservation. Since 2003, Rhizome has been an affiliate in residence at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Since its founding in 2014, Rhizome has been an anchor tenant of NEW INC, the first museum-led incubator.
ABOUT TRLAB
TRLab fuses Web3 technology with fine art expertise to pioneer the future of collecting. Since its founding in 2021, TRLab has successfully designed and launched NFT collecting experiences with leading digital and traditional artists, including “The Calder Question”, a multi-season educational project developed with the Calder Foundation; “Your Daytime Fireworks,” an interactive collecting journey with contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, which was shortlisted for a 2022 Lumen Prize; and “Vogue Meta-Ocean”, the first digital art collection curated by Vogue editors worldwide. Exploding the Self", a 2021 limited-edition NFT series co-developed with Cai Guo-Qiang, is now represented in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
ABOUT MOONPAY
MoonPay is a financial technology company that builds payments infrastructure for crypto. Our on-and-off-ramp suite of products provides a seamless experience for converting between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies using all major payment methods including debit and credit card, local bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
PRESS CONTACT
Marcella Zimmermann
Digital Counsel, CEO
[email protected]