The fusion of art and technology has given rise to myriad digital art genres and subgenres, each boasting its own distinct style and approach.
This post serves as your rough guide to the varied landscape of digital art, giving a quick primer on each genre’s unique characteristics and pointing to a few key figures to kickstart your exploration. When available, we also link to more comprehensive essays on a specific genre — and this list is ever-growing.
From the nostalgic charm of pixel art to the immersive experiences offered by virtual reality, this journey through the digital art landscape aims to enlighten and inspire, leaving you with a newfound appreciation for the creativity that technology enables and maybe a few new favorite genres or artists along the way.
NB: This is a living blog post — an overly ambitious piece of work that will always be at least slightly incomplete and thus a work in progress. The “Notable Artists” lists are far from exhaustive and not ranked in any way — they simply represent a diverse enough set to give readers an idea of a genre’s scope.
If there’s a genre you believe we’ve missed, please let us know: email: editorial@makersplace.com / Twitter @makersplace
Table of Contents
- 3D Modeling & Sculpture
- AI Generative Art
- Algorithmic Generative Art
- ASCII Art
- Audio-Visual Art
- Conceptual Art (On-Chain)
- Crypto Poetry
- Cyberpunk Art
- Data Art
- Digital Collage
- Digital Painting
- Experiential Internet Art
- Fractal Art
- GIF Art
- Glitch Art
- Motion Graphics
- Photo Manipulation
- Physical/Digital Art
- Pixel Art
- Trash Art
- Vaporwave and Synthwave Art
- Vector Art
- Coming soon…
3D Modeling and Sculpting
In the realm of digital art, 3D modeling and sculpting stand out as influential techniques used to create intricate three-dimensional objects and characters. Technological advancements have empowered artists to pursue realism and detail in their work while incorporating animation, VR, and 3D printing to further bring their works to life.
3D modeling and 3D sculpting, while both integral to digital art, differ in their approaches and applications. 3D modeling, the backbone of 3D applications, relies on polygons and mathematical calculations to create and manipulate objects. Artists use shapes, lines, and vector points to generate 3D models, making it ideal for geometric objects like chairs. With deliberate control over each polygon, the mesh remains intact, requiring no extra steps for topology.
On the other hand, 3D sculpting offers a more organic process, using brush-like tools to manipulate polygonal meshes. Artists work with digitized clay-like material and tools that push, pull, pinch, and smooth, creating detailed sculptures that resemble real-life textures and objects. Sculpting is best suited for organic objects like characters or tree trunks. Artists begin with broad manipulations and gradually move to finer details by increasing polygon count, spending anywhere from 30 minutes to hundreds of hours on a project, depending on complexity and skill.
Full overview of 3D Modeling and Sculpting coming soon.
3 Artists Doing 3D Modeling or Sculpture
AI Generative Art
To state the obvious, AI-powered text-to-image engines like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion have taken the world by storm. Combine the shock and awe of these developments with more accessible large language model–powered tools, and you have the makings of the biggest shift in how we make and perceive art since the birth of modernism.
AI-generated art is created using machine-learning techniques, specifically neural networks. This art is created by training a neural network on a large dataset of images and then using the trained network to generate new images. The artist may have some control over the parameters of the neural network and the training data, but the final output is determined by the network itself.
Read our overview of AI Generative art here >> What is Generative Art? Algorithmic vs. AI
3 Notable AI Artists
Algorithmic Generative Art
Algorithmic generative art refers to art that is created using a set of predefined rules or algorithms. These algorithms are often mathematical or logical in nature, and they are used to generate visual patterns, images, or animations. The artist designs the algorithm and sets the parameters, but the final output is determined by the algorithm itself.
Within the practice of algorithmic generative art, the algorithms used to generate art can range from simple mathematical formulas to more complex, self-generating programs. The artist typically sets parameters for the algorithm, such as color schemes or geometric shapes, but the final outcome is determined by the algorithm itself.
Read our overview of Algorithmic Generative art here >> What is Generative Art? Algorithmic vs. AI
3 Notable Generative Artists
ASCII Art
ASCII art uses ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text symbols to shape pictures and patterns and is a subset of generative art. Born in the 1960s with the start of the ASCII symbol set, it became an early type of digital art, mainly liked in online groups like message boards and internet chat rooms during the 1970s and 1980s.
Different ASCII art ways use marks to show varying shades of gray or color. For example, “@” and “#” could stand for darker spots, while “.” and ” ” (space) stand for lighter spots. Artists can thus shape pictures with many tones and feels.
ASCII art can be made by hand or shaped with software tools. Hand-making involves careful picking and setting of each mark. Software, on the other hand, can turn existing pictures into ASCII art by looking at color and light values and picking matching marks. ASCII art has been put to use in computer pictures, video games, digital talk, and online culture, and it has touched other digital art types like ANSI art, which uses a broader symbol set and backs up color.
Full overview of ASCII Art coming soon.
3 Notable Artists Working with ASCII
Audio-Visual Art
Audio-visual art as a fine art form emerged in the 1960s and 1970s when electronic media advances allowed artists to explore sound and sculpture intersections. This led to creative experimentation, blending technology with traditional art forms and offering immersive experiences for audiences.
With digital technology, sound art underwent a striking change, enabling artists to create visual images responding to sounds and craft interactive experiences using pressure pads, sensors, and voice activation. These innovations expanded audio-visual art’s range and reshaped the landscape of sound art while altering audience engagement and art experiences.
Audio-visual artists play a key role in shaping various art forms’ aesthetic identity, including electronic music and club culture. From analog slide projectors at a Velvet Underground show to real-time optical light shows and machine-learning animations, technological progress opened limitless visual innovation opportunities.
Full overview of Audio-Visual Art coming soon.
3 Notable Audio-Visual Artists
Conceptual Art (On-Chain)
Conceptual art, born from Marcel Duchamp’s radical submission of Fountain in 1917, has sparked scorn, delight, befuddlement, and contention ever since. Duchamp’s “literary” vision paved the way for art as a vehicle for ideas rather than form.
In his 1969 essay “Art After Philosophy,” Joseph Kosuth argued that art’s essence lies in embodying and projecting ideas, not just aesthetics. Like architecture, conceptual art must succeed conceptually first and aesthetically second. Lawrence Weiner and Sol LeWitt emphasized art as a mental construct through language-based statements and guidelines for drawings, respectively.
However, not all conceptual artists share the same vision. Some, like LeWitt, believe in the primacy of the idea, while others focus on creating immediate, visceral experiences through performance or installation art. This divergence is evident in artists like Marina Abramović, Olafur Eliasson, and Carsten Höller, who prioritize emotional engagement over intellectual documentation.
On-chain conceptual art is similarly factionalized, with one debate centering on blockchain’s role in the work. Must on-chain conceptual art provoke ideas using web3 tools, or can it merely use blockchain as an inviolable record and means of monetization? In this guide, we’ll explore these perspectives and outline the various factions within on-chain conceptual art.
Read our deeper overview of on-chain conceptual art here >> “Guide to On-Chain Conceptual Art.
3 Notable On-Chain Conceptual Artists
Crypto Poetry
The tale of poetry as a sightly or fine art form reaches far back, with works like calligraphy and concrete poetry laying the groundwork for artistic showing through the written word. Nowadays, the world of poetry has taken up the digital age with the rise of crypto poetry and the rallying cry of crypto poetry OG Ana Maria Caballero: “Poetry = Art.”
Drawing from the rich past of visual poetry, crypto poets carry on pushing the limits of artistic showing by wedding time-honored elements of poetry with new technology, including video, animation, audio recording, and practically any other digital artform found in this overview.
The digital nature of crypto poetry widens the reach and ease of access of poetic expression, allowing for a more varied and worldwide audience to link with this growing art form.
Read our deeper overview of visual poetry here >> “Poetry Equals Art: A Brief Guide”
3 Notable Crypto Poets
Cyberpunk Art
Cyberpunk art, born in the 1980s, is rooted in science fiction, juxtaposing advanced technology with societal decay. It portrays high-tech elements within dystopian landscapes, characterized by neon lights, cybernetic organisms, and gritty cityscapes. Influenced by film noir and Japanese culture, its aesthetic uses contrasting vibrant neons with darker tones to reflect societal dichotomies in cyberpunk narratives.
This art form has significantly influenced popular culture, permeating films, video games, graphic novels, music, and fashion. Iconic films like Blade Runner and The Matrix, along with video games like Deus Ex and Cyberpunk 2077, exhibit distinct cyberpunk aesthetics. Its influence can also be seen in synthwave and vaporwave music, as well as in mainstream fashion trends.
Full overview of Cyberpunk Art coming soon.
3 Notable Cyberpunk Artists
Data Art
Data Art sits in the spectrum between Generative Art and Data Visualization, though there is much overlap and gray area.
Where Generative Art relies on random or at least insular rules for creating work, Data Art pulls information from the outside world into its creative process. Most often, Generative Art emphasizes the outcome over the rules-based process. With Data Art, process and outcome are inseparable.
Where Data Visualization seeks to make information clear-cut and understandable, Data Art leans on art’s propensity for posing questions instead of providing answers and for provoking awe over comprehension. That said, some artists working with data lean heavily on delivering a message, while others leave things more open-ended.
Read our full-length Guide to Data Art
3 Notable Data-driven Artists
Digital Collage
Collage art — beginning in the early 20th century with artists like Picasso and Braque — involves piecing together diverse materials to make new compositions. Digital collage art puts this idea into the digital world, using software and scanners to work with and join elements.
Digital technology has broadened collage art possibilities and ways, giving more room to move in the making process. Artists use photo editing tools, graphic design programs, and digital drawing instruments to create digital collages with additional techniques like digital painting, animation, glitch, and more.
The making process includes choosing, setting up, resizing, turning, and layering parts within a digital workspace. Digital tools let artists work with and blend materials for a smooth final work.
Full overview of Digital Collage coming soon.
3 Notable Digital Collagists
Digital Painting
Digital painting marks a shift from traditional painting methods to the use of digital tools and software. This change lets artists use new techniques and styles while keeping the heart of classical painting.
In digital painting, artists employ techniques that resemble those used in traditional painting, such as sketching, blending, and layering. But they also have access to digital-specific tools, including customizable brushes, color palettes, and layer options, not to mention that it’s more mobile and economical.
These features provide artists with greater freedom in terms of style, enabling them to achieve precise control over their work.
Styles in digital painting can range from lifelike to abstract, as artists harness the capabilities of digital tools to create unique visual expressions. The adaptability of digital painting lets artists develop their singular aesthetic while exploring new artistic paths, contributing to the richness and diversity of the digital art landscape.
Read our deeper investigation of digital painting here.
3 Notable Digital Painters
Experiential Internet Art
Experiential art is a form of artistic expression that emphasizes the experience of the viewer as an integral part of the artwork itself. Considering the digital sphere’s obsession with experience (hello, all you UX researchers and designers), the Internet makes for a hospitable setting for this amorphous and evolving art category.
Unlike traditional forms of art, where the focus is often on viewing or interpreting a static object (which includes non-dynamic time-based art like film, theater, and music), experiential art is about creating an immersive, interactive, and often multi-sensory environment that engages the audience in a more direct and personal way.
Experiential works often blur the boundaries between art and life, artist and viewer, reality and illusion, challenging traditional notions of what art can be and how it should be experienced. This is a category where storytelling is often central but almost never resembles Freytag’s Triangle.
Read our deeper overview of experiential internet art in web3 here.
3 Notable Artists Creating Internet Experiences
Fractal Art
Fractal art is rooted in geometric shapes that can be split into smaller parts, each mirroring the whole. Fractal art uses the complex patterns and self-similarity found in fractals to create visually captivating images, often marked by their complexity and seemingly endless detail.
To make fractal art, artists use specialized software crafted to generate and shape fractal images. Programs like Apophysis, Ultra Fractal, and Mandelbulb3D are popular choices that offer a range of features for designing and customizing fractals. Artists can adjust parameters, apply color schemes, and even blend multiple fractals to produce unique and mesmerizing compositions.
The aesthetic appeal of fractal art lies in its ability to stir a sense of wonder and curiosity through its intricate patterns and otherworldly forms. Fractal art has found uses across various fields, including visual design, animation, and even scientific research, where it can be used to show complex data or natural phenomena. As a result, fractal art continues to intrigue and inspire, demonstrating the fascinating link between mathematics and artistic expression.
Full overview of Fractal Art coming soon.
3 Notable Fractal Artists
GIF Art
Animation is central to GIF art. Artists arrange multiple frames in a sequence, creating an illusion of motion. Each frame presents an individual image, together forming complex narratives. Unlike video, GIFs have the capability to loop indefinitely, offering a perpetual visual narrative. It can incorporate a variety of digital art techniques, including pixel art, digital painting, and 3D modeling.
In the broader scope of art, GIF art is acknowledged for its ability to convey intricate ideas and emotions in a compact, accessible format. Unlike video, GIFs loop indefinitely for a continuous narrative.
Full overview of GIF Art coming soon.
3 Notable GIF Artists
Glitch Art
Glitch art focuses on digital errors’ aesthetics, creating unique compositions that question traditional notions of beauty and perfection. Originating in the early days of computing, artists began experimenting with software and hardware errors to create unique compositions.
Various techniques, such as data bending, pixel sorting, and circuit bending, are applied to different digital media like images, videos, and sound files. Artists manipulate and edit these files using software, introducing digital errors and artifacts to achieve the desired effect.
The creation process involves selecting digital materials and glitch elements, including photographs, digital illustrations, or video clips, as well as visual artifacts from software malfunctions or hardware errors. Artists manipulate and arrange these materials to create visually engaging compositions incorporating glitched elements.
Read our extensive overview of Glitch Art here >> “Gateway to Glitch: 10 Top Artists and Quick Pixelsorting Lesson”
3 Notable Glitch Artists
Motion Graphics
Motion graphics has been a key part of the art and design world since its early start, with the opening titles of Hitchcock’s Psycho being a main example of sound, motion, and graphic design coming together.
Motion graphics are often short videos that bring in moving text, shapes, and other visual elements to get a message across or tell a story. In the fine art world, motion graphics can be used to make gripping short films, joining animation methods with artistic expression to bring forth imaginative visual showings of feelings, emotions, and intangible amounts. This lets creators push the bounds of visual storytelling, offering a unique way to connect with viewers and draw them into a fully formed, imagined world.
Full overview of Motion Graphics coming soon.
3 Notable Motion Graphics Artists
Photo Manipulation
Photo manipulation has a history that predates digital technology, with early instances dating back to the 19th century. Over time, the growth of photography and image-editing methods has transformed the practice, broadening the range of possibilities for artists and professionals alike. Today, photo manipulation includes various techniques that allow for the change or enhancement of images, often blurring the line between reality and art.
Many tools and software programs have been developed to ease photo manipulation (e.g., Photoshop or Affinity Photo), giving users options for adjusting various aspects of an image, such as color, contrast, and composition as well as the ability to merge multiple images, remove or add elements, and apply various effects to create striking visual tales.
Full overview of Photo Manipulation coming soon.
3 Notable Photo Manipulation Artists
Physical/Digital Art
Hybrid physical/digital experiences are becoming increasingly commonplace. QR code restaurant menus, Snapchat filters, Pokemon Go, and digital maps apps are all examples of how the digital world is enmeshed with our lived experiences.
With the explosion of creativity that has followed the digital art revolution, it’s no surprise that artists would wield these tools to break down barriers between what can be seen on a screen and what can be experienced without mediation.
Examples of hybrid artwork and experiences are vaster than a correlating print or painting, extending to sculpture, 3D printing, AR applications and artwork, and metaverse clones of real-world spaces, just to name a few.
Read our full overview of hybrid physical/digital art here >> The Guide to All Things Phygital Art
3 Artists Creating Physical/Digital Work
Pixel Art
Pixel art, a digital art form using individual pixels as building blocks, shares similarities with impressionism, pointillism, mosaic, and cross-stitch. It thrives on constraints, often recreating technical limitations of the past, such as reduced pixels or colors.
In the 70s-90s, screen resolution capacity constrained visual complexity and color palettes. As resolution increased, pixel size decreased, allowing for more intricate visuals. Modern HDTVs have 1920×1080 resolution, while the Nintendo Entertainment System had 256×240 and Atari 2600, 192×160. Super Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, used a big nose and mustache to bypass facial detail limitations.
While hardware improved, some game-makers stuck with pixel art, leading to a resurgence in the early 2000s via websites like PixelJoint and games like Cave Story. Nostalgia and cost-effectiveness fueled this growth, particularly in the indie games space.
Pixel art’s appeal transcends nostalgia, similar to buying records, playing synthwave, wearing vintage clothes, or shooting black-and-white photos. Its popularity is driven by artists, designers, gamers, and collectors, many of whom are too young to experience nostalgia.
Read our full overview of pixel art here >> “Low-Res Masterpieces”
3 Pixel Artists to Check Out
Trash Art
Trash Art could be described as the conceptual offspring of Junk Art and Glitch Art. Junk Art, characterized by assemblages, found objects, readymades, décollage, and certain types of collage, hinges on the idea that any material, no matter how mundane, can be transformed into art. This art form creates a sense of defamiliarization, enabling viewers to gain fresh perspectives on common objects. Glitch Art, on the other hand, involves the use of digital or analog errors for aesthetic purposes.
Trash Art often combines elements of both, incorporating glitch aesthetics and found digital objects, while embracing a deliberately low-effort execution, reminiscent of punk rock ethos.
The Trash Art movement was catalyzed in 2020 by digital artist ROBNESS, who minted a glitched image of a rolling garbage can. Despite being considered a unique piece of art, it was taken down for copyright infringement, and ROBNESS was suspended. This incident sparked other artists to create their own Trash Art, and ROBNESS named the emerging genre after his initial work.
Read our full overview of pixel art here >> What is Trash Art?
3 Notable Trash Artists
Vaporwave and Synthwave Art
Vaporwave and Synthwave are music genres that have developed distinct visual aesthetics, both drawing from 1980s and 1990s nostalgia. Vaporwave art, emerging in the early 2010s, critiques consumer capitalism and popular culture, using elements like Roman busts, tropical landscapes, and 80s corporate logos with pastel or neon colors.
Synthwave, or Retrowave, is another 80s-inspired style, featuring neon-infused landscapes, retro-futuristic vehicles, and sunsets in pink, purple, and blue. It pays a straightforward homage to the 80s, unlike the surreal and satirical approach of Vaporwave.
Both styles have influenced visual art, graphic design, fashion, and video games. Vaporwave’s ironic use of retro imagery and Synthwave’s evocative 80s visuals can be seen in digital art, TV series like “Stranger Things,” and games like “Hotline Miami,” underlining their enduring impact on pop culture.
Full overview of Vaporwave and Synthwave Art coming soon.
3 Notable Vaporwave & Synthwave Artists
Vector Art
Unlike pixel-based art forms, vector art hinges on mathematical rules to set lines, curves, and shapes. This singular approach lets artists craft sharp, high-resolution visuals that can be sized endlessly without losing quality. As a fine art, vector art gives artists an unmatched level of command and accuracy, permitting them to fashion intricate and polished designs.
One of the chief appeals of vector art rests in its knack to maintain detail and clean lines no matter the scope of the final piece. This is why vector art has been so prominent in logo design, typography, and illustration, though nowadays the use of vector art has broadened to delve into more abstract and experimental styles, with artists pushing the boundaries of the medium and its capabilities.
Full overview of Vector Art coming soon.
3 Notable Vector Artists
In the immortal words of Jack White, I said it once before, but it bears repeating: This is a living blog post — an overly ambitious piece of work that will always be at least slightly incomplete and thus a work in progress. If there’s a genre you believe we’ve missed, please let us know: email: editorial@makersplace.com / Twitter @makersplace
Our to-do list (so far)
- Augmented Reality (AR) Art
- Comic Book Art
- Digital Architecture
- Fan Art
- Game Art
- Line Art
- Sci-fi and Fantasy Art
- Virtual Reality (VR) Art
