.artist talk
Vellum LA
speaks with
Michelle Kim + Savannah Winans

Michelle Kim + Savannah Winans //
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR ARTS BACKGROUND AND HOW IT HAS INFORMED THE WAY YOU APPROACH VELLUM LA?
Vellum LA //
I’m a self taught photographer and artist but I’ve also been curating art on large scale physical LED installations, from interior lobbies and public art billboards to more conceptually designed LED facades. My background in understanding the possibilities of how digital art could be displayed in a physical environment informed the kind of experience I wanted to create for the general public entering Vellum.

Furthermore, because I previously worked with digital artists who came from both traditional and non-traditional backgrounds, it was easy to find ways in which these artists could be paired up for group shows in order to create an open dialogue around new kinds of digital art that may not had been previously accepted within the traditional art world.

WHAT INCENTIVIZED YOU TO START YOUR OWN SPACE?
In 2021, when I opened the gallery, there wasn’t a lot of curation in the NFT world. Marketplaces were saturated with anything and everything and the displays for showcasing digital art were subpar and cheap feeling. Given my background, I felt I was uniquely positioned to create a space that not only displayed the work in an engaging way but also gave context to the exhibited works.

WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE SO FAR HAVING VELLUM LA IN LOS ANGELES? HOW HAS THE PHYSICAL LOCATION OF THE GALLERY BEEN INFLUENTIAL?
It’s been equal parts challenging and rewarding. Opening a gallery that attempts to bridge the gap between the crypto art community and the traditional art world has had its challenges in that the NFT space was skeptical about gatekeeping while the traditional art world was skeptical about NFTs in general. We’ve come a long way since we opened, and I’m proud to say that Vellum has become an important part of the digital art community. We’ve worked hard to make digital and new media art more accessible to the general public and we’ve successfully had artworks exhibited at our gallery by prolific artists, like Nancy Baker Cahill and John Gerrard, collected by major institutions such as LACMA and Centre Pompidou. We are thrilled that we can serve as a vehicle for elevating the work of digital artists in the space and hope to continue to do so for as long as we are able.

OUR CULTURE HAS GOTTEN USED TO AND PERHAPS FATIGUED BY SEEING A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF IMAGES EVERY DAY. HOW DOES THIS IMAGE-OVERLOAD INFORM AND MOTIVATE YOUR CURATION?
For me, Vellum is a place where visitors are invited to slow down and experience a singular body of work, dive deep into the meaning and learn more about the story behind the art and the artist’s intentions. The work we typically curate veers more into conceptual territory, and while it may exist online on its own in the form of eye-catching imagery, in the gallery we seek to further expand on the meaning behind the works being shown.

One example of this is Lifelike, a group exhibition curated by Katie Peyton Hofstadter, featuring works by artists who are quite literally putting their bodies on the blockchain, ranging from purely conceptual to performance-based, where meaning is often extrapolated from what wasn’t actually being shown on the screen itself.

Another great exhibition we put on was Hotel Blue, curated by Alice Scope, a group show exploring the meaning of “home” for the virtual beings of tomorrow, which we showcased as an immersive choreographed experience on a 10,000 square foot LED stage, inviting viewers to take the time and imagine themselves in this speculative world and what it might mean to live as an avatar in a tech-driven future.

THE IMAGES WE’RE EXPOSED TO ONLINE CAN BE HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY ALGORITHMS, WHEREAS THE WORK SHOWN AT VELLUM LA IS OBVIOUSLY HAND-PICKED AND CURATED. HOW CAN THIS HUMAN INTERPRETATION (OR INTERVENTION) CHANGE PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCE WITH DIGITAL ART VERSUS HOW ONE MIGHT BE USED TO CONSUMING DIGITAL IMAGES ON A DAILY BASIS?
Off the top of my head, I could compare it to this: Spotify does an excellent job of picking out the songs it thinks I would like and I find a lot of good music this way, but nothing can compete with the excitement and fervor with which my favorite disk jockeys share the latest music they’ve discovered and the history and context behind it. At the end of the day, I guess it comes down to how much we as a society have any interest in digging deeper underneath the surface of what we experience in our day-to-day lives. I’m optimistic that as long as someone is interested in telling stories and sharing knowledge, there will always be someone on the receiving end willing to listen.

DIGITAL ART STILL OCCUPIES A SOMEWHAT SEPARATE SPHERE FROM THE TRADITIONAL ART WORLD. DO YOU THINK THE TRADITIONAL ART WORLD WILL ABSORB THE DIGITAL ART WORLD, OR WILL THEY MAINTAIN A LEVEL OF SEPARATION?
Digital and new media art have long been part of the ecosystem of the traditional art world but the rise of NFTs and on-chain art propelled many of these works into the mainstream while also introducing a new generation of collectors. I think that the traditional art world will certainly absorb the digital art world and it's already been happening. We’ve seen big steps in recent months with major institutions collecting on-chain art, but there is definitely a learning curve on both sides for how the work can be integrated, both from a technological standpoint and with regards to artwork preservation.

HOW DOES THE ONGOING PUBLIC CONVERSATION AROUND DIGITAL ART AFFECT THE WORK BEING MADE AND SHOWN?
We typically don’t tend to follow trends when conceptualizing exhibitions. Right now artificial intelligence is a big buzzword, but we’ve been showing some incredible artists working with AI in very unique ways long before ChatGPT became a household word. Last year we put on two significant AI-based solo shows: Botto, the brainchild of Mario Klingemann and the first ever “decentralized autonomous artist” that produces artwork based on feedback from the community, and Sofia Crespo, who actively trains neural networks to generate speculative lifeforms.

WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THE SHIFTING BOUNDARIES OF COPYRIGHT LAWS OR THEORIES ABOUT OWNERSHIP WITH DIGITAL ART?
If we’re referring to AI art specifically, the technology is definitely moving fast and lawmakers are attempting to keep up. It’s likely that there will be a cultural shift that will rock the foundations of copyright and ownership as we know it and the thought leaders in the digital art space are having very interesting discussions that will eventually help us make sense of it all.

DO YOU FIND THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE STILL UNINFORMED OR UNSURE ABOUT DIGITAL ART? HAVE YOU HAD ANY EXPERIENCES WHERE THEIR OPINIONS ON AI, NFTS, ETC. CHANGED AFTER VISITING VELLUM LA?
Yes and yes. This is all part of the fabric of Vellum. As a physical gallery, we’re uniquely positioned to have discussions with anyone who is willing to ask questions, listen, and learn about the work being shown and the technology behind it. The most effective interactions we have all revolve around explaining the intentions of the artists, especially when it comes to AI art, and how blockchain technology can play a conceptual role in the creation of the work itself. There will always be critics, but as we’ve seen throughout history, technology continues to evolve and those who are unwilling to adapt will get left behind.