Rhizome internet artwork is marking 30 years with a program that treats the web site itself because the art work: WEBSITES WEBSITES WEBSITES! (WWW!) ran September 21–27, 2026 at New Int. Image Firm, 39 Nice Jones Avenue, New York, with an internet exhibition at websiteswebsiteswebsites.internet, and a profit on September 23, 2026 at Capitale honoring Mohawk artist Skawennati and Artwork Blocks founder Erick Calderon. For NFT creators and collectors, the through-line is obvious—browser-native work, institutional preservation (ArtBase, Emulation-as-a-Service), and why “the location is the piece” nonetheless issues after PFPs and market apps.
What WWW! placed on view
Rhizome partnered with ARTXCODE on WWW!, curated by Sofia Garcia of ARTXCODE and Vienna Kim and Benoit Palop of LAN Get together. Rhizome’s August 24 announcement framed the present as a celebration of the web site as a website of experimentation, id, and autonomy—pairing net-art pioneers with modern digital artists.
Within the gallery, dwell web sites had been put in on assorted {hardware} so guests encountered each bit as a bodily browser expertise. On-line, the identical exhibition splits into 4 thematic paths: Anarchy, Abstraction, Poetic Computing, and Ghosts. Works had been out there for acquisition in particular person or through Fellowship, with proceeds supporting Rhizome’s work as a reminiscence establishment for digital artwork.
Rhizome’s featured roster consists of Vuk Ćosić, Damjanski, Molly Soda, Lorna Mills, Jan Robert Leegte, 0xfff, Rafaël Rozendaal, Kim Asendorf, Mika Ben Amar, LIA, SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY, Nolen Royalty, Maya Man, Chia Amisola, Petra Cortright, Auriea Harvey, EXONEMO, Luke Shannon, Simon Denny, and others named on the official announcement. The web exhibition website lists twenty artists with out claiming a definitive historical past of internet artwork—precisely the purpose for NFT Tradition readers uninterested in “first ever” advertising.
Why the profit meters for generative NFT tradition
The September 23 profit at Capitale (130 Bowery; 6:30 PM–12 AM; costume code “Plant”) honored two artists Rhizome says are “already many years forward of their time.” Skawennati—whose CyberPowWow (1997) was an early main on-line exhibition of Indigenous artists and was restored by Rhizome in 2022—stands for net-native neighborhood and long-horizon digital apply. Erick Calderon, who based Artwork Blocks in 2020 with The Chromie Squiggle, is framed as an advocate for generative digital artwork’s methods of experiencing, preserving, creating, and gathering work on the blockchain.
That pairing is the non-obvious bridge. Institutional rhizome internet artwork preservation and on-chain generative tradition will not be separate scenes—they share the identical onerous issues: how a piece survives when browsers, plugins, and platforms change, and the way collectors expertise dwelling software program relatively than a JPEG thumbnail. In the event you observe Artwork Blocks as neighborhood infrastructure, our Artwork Blocks Marfa Weekend 2026 information is the sibling that places Calderon’s desert gathering subsequent to this New York institutional room.
ArtBase, Emulation-as-a-Service, and why provenance isn’t solely a token
Rhizome describes itself as a reminiscence establishment for digital artwork. Its ArtBase is a public archive of greater than 2,200 born-digital works—internet artwork, software program, code, web sites, transferring picture, video games, and browser-based items—per Rhizome’s personal About supplies and anniversary protection. Since 2015, a core preservation funding has been Emulation-as-a-Service: working legacy software program environments so older works may be skilled in a up to date browser relatively than rewritten into no matter stack is trendy this 12 months. Rhizome’s preservation providers web page additionally paperwork Conifer/Webrecorder-style community seize and gallery/offline entry for CD-ROM and software program artwork.
For collectors, that may be a completely different provenance stack than a market itemizing. Tokens can show possession of a pointer; establishments like Rhizome maintain asking whether or not the expertise of the work nonetheless boots. After platform wind-downs and chain-level threat, that query is just not tutorial—see our protection of SuperRare Unfinished Previous on long-horizon collector duty, and Summary’s chain shutdown on infrastructure beneath the mint web page. Browse extra of this beat beneath our NFT occasions protection.
What NFT creators and collectors can take from WWW!
For creators: WWW!’s Abstraction theme explicitly hyperlinks web-native generative visuals—websites as vitrines anybody with a connection can open—to the political drawback of black-boxed platforms. Delivery a URL that’s the art work, not a redirect right into a feed, remains to be a radical distribution alternative. Poetic Computing’s hand-coded, private internet ethos rhymes with artists who publish exterior Discord-gatekept drops. Ghosts names the unease of bot-saturated netspace—helpful context in case your apply assumes a human viewers.
For collectors: Ask what you’re shopping for if you purchase “digital artwork.” Is the location the piece? Can or not it’s exhibited offline on {hardware}? Is there an institutional path to maintain it runnable in ten years? Rhizome’s profit and ArtBase relaunch supplies argue that reminiscence work is a part of the tradition, not a museum afterthought. For extra gatherings and digital-art infrastructure, maintain studying our NFT information and generative artwork sections.
Fast information (verified)
Exhibition: WEBSITES WEBSITES WEBSITES! (WWW!), Sep 21–27, 2026, New Int. Image Firm, 39 Nice Jones St, NYC + on-line.
Companions / curators: Rhizome + ARTXCODE; curated by Sofia Garcia (ARTXCODE) and Vienna Kim & Benoit Palop (LAN Get together).
Acquisitions: In particular person or through Fellowship; proceeds profit Rhizome.
Profit: Sep 23, 2026, Capitale, 130 Bowery; honoring Skawennati and Erick Calderon.
ArtBase: Greater than 2,200 born-digital works; Emulation-as-a-Service for legacy environments (Rhizome major supplies).
