Art and video games: when galleries embrace game art

01Defining game art: a territory with shifting boundaries

Game art encompasses several distinct artistic practices that should not be conflated. The first is art that uses video games as a medium. Contemporary artists create works that take the form of games or that subvert existing games to produce unprecedented aesthetic experiences. Cory Arcangel, who has exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York, is known for his interventions on modified Nintendo cartridges. The Jodi collective, a net art pioneer, produced works from games such as Wolfenstein 3D and Quake, transforming source code into artistic material.

The second category concerns concept art and illustrations produced during video game development. These creations, long considered mere working documents, are now recognised as works in their own right. Concept arts from studios such as Ubisoft for the Assassin's Creed series, Naughty Dog for The Last of Us or FromSoftware for Elden Ring constitute visual ensembles whose quality bears comparison with traditional illustration.

The third category is that of interactive installations inspired by video game aesthetics. Artists such as Ian Cheng, whose real-time simulations have been shown at MoMA and the Serpentine Gallery in London, or Hito Steyerl, who uses game engines to create immersive installations, push the boundaries between contemporary art and the gaming world.

02Pioneer galleries in this movement

Several galleries have understood that game art represents a curatorial and commercial opportunity. Bitforms Gallery in New York, founded in 2001, was one of the first to exhibit digital art and game art in a traditional gallery context. Carroll Fletcher Gallery in London, before its closure, presented works by artists working with game engines and virtual environments. Upstream Gallery in Amsterdam regularly programmes artists whose work dialogues with gaming culture.

In France, the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris has devoted numerous exhibitions to gaming culture and helped legitimise video games as cultural objects. The Musée d'Art Ludique, also in Paris, presented exhibitions dedicated to concept arts from major game studios, attracting an audience that did not necessarily frequent contemporary art galleries. These institutional initiatives paved the way for private galleries wishing to invest in this territory.

König Galerie in Berlin, known for its bold programming, has presented artists working with virtual reality and game environments. Pace Gallery, one of the world's most important, created Pace Verso, a division dedicated to immersive artistic experiences that includes works produced with gaming technologies. These examples show that game art is no longer confined to market margins but is beginning to interest leading players.

03The profile of a new collector

One of the most compelling arguments for game art is the demographic profile of the audience it attracts. Traditional contemporary art collectors predominantly belong to an age bracket above fifty, possessing established wealth and an artistic culture forged in museums and galleries. Game art attracts a younger audience, often from the technology industry, whose relationship to visual culture was built through video games, animation and science fiction cinema.

This audience, found in numbers in Silicon Valley companies, digital creation studios and technology startups, has significant financial means and a familiarity with digital art that facilitates the purchasing process. Dealers who have captured this audience report that these new collectors buy with enthusiasm, rapidly develop gallery loyalty and serve as effective ambassadors within their own networks.

The question of the physical support of the work remains an important issue for galleries. Some collectors wish to acquire tangible objects, which steers programming towards digital art prints, sculptures produced by 3D printing from game models, or original concept arts on paper or canvas. Other collectors, more familiar with digital formats, accept acquiring works as files accompanied by certificates of authenticity, installations requiring projection equipment, or virtual reality experiences. The dealer must adapt their offering to these different expectations.

04Curatorial challenges of game art in galleries

Exhibiting game art in a gallery space poses specific challenges the dealer must anticipate. Interactive works require technical equipment the gallery does not necessarily possess: high-resolution screens, powerful computers, virtual reality headsets, projection systems, controllers and input devices. Maintaining this equipment throughout the exhibition represents a cost and logistical complexity that differs radically from hanging a painting or installing a sculpture.

Mediation is another crucial issue. The visitor entering a traditional contemporary art gallery knows how to look at a painting or sculpture. They do not necessarily know how to interact with a video game work, navigate a virtual environment or understand the aesthetic choices of an artist working with a game engine. The gallery must provide accompaniment, whether through explanatory text, a mediator present in the space or an introductory session organised by the artist.

Visit duration is also affected. A painting exhibition is toured in twenty to forty minutes. A game art exhibition, if it includes interactive works the visitor must experience, can require an hour or more. The dealer must account for this in space organisation and event communication.

05The question of value and the secondary market

The valuation of game art works raises questions the traditional art market has not yet entirely resolved. How does one value a work whose support is software liable to become obsolete? How does one guarantee the longevity of an interactive installation dependent on computer hardware with a limited lifespan? How does one ensure the preservation of a virtual reality work when headsets and platforms evolve at a sustained pace?

These questions are not new in art history. Video art traversed the same interrogations in the 1970s and 1980s, and solutions were found: conservation protocols, support migration, technical documentation accompanying works. Museums such as the Whitney, the ZKM in Karlsruhe and the Jeu de Paume in Paris possess expertise in digital art conservation that can guide galleries in developing protocols adapted to game art.

The secondary market for game art remains embryonic but is beginning to structure itself. Auction houses occasionally offer lots of digital and game art in their contemporary art sales. Phillips has notably integrated digital works into its thematic sales. The development of this secondary market will depend largely on galleries' ability to establish documentation, certification and conservation standards that reassure collectors about the longevity of their investment.

06A territory of the future for bold galleries

Game art offers galleries that dare venture into it a territory of differentiation in a contemporary art market where competition is intense and programmes sometimes tend to resemble one another. The dealer who develops expertise in this domain positions themselves at the intersection of two major cultural industries and gains access to a pool of collectors their competitors do not yet reach.

Collaboration with art schools that integrate video games into their curriculum, such as Les Gobelins in Paris, the Royal College of Art in London or the School of Visual Arts in New York, allows the dealer to identify emerging artists whose work blends video game codes with contemporary art ambitions. These young artists, trained in digital tools as well as art history references, produce works that speak as naturally to traditional collectors as to gaming culture enthusiasts.

The question of rights and intellectual property deserves particular attention in the game art domain. Concept arts produced during video game development generally belong to the commissioning studio, not the artist who created them. A dealer wishing to exhibit and sell concept arts must ensure that rights have been properly transferred or that the studio has granted a licence authorising the works' commercialisation outside the game production context. This legal verification, which does not exist for a traditional painting or sculpture, adds a layer of complexity the dealer must master to avoid disputes that could compromise their credibility and that of their artists.

Artist residencies developing within video game studios create fertile ground for the meeting of both worlds. Ubisoft has hosted contemporary artists in its Montreal studios, and the MIT Media Lab residency programme has produced works situated at the exact boundary between technological research and artistic creation. The dealer who maintains relationships with these programmes positions themselves upstream in the creative chain and gains access to works whose originality reflects the encounter between professional cultures usually kept separate.

For Artedusa partner galleries, presenting game art on the platform offers a structural advantage. Artedusa's digital format naturally lends itself to showcasing works whose visual and interactive dimension finds in the online environment a presentation space coherent with the very nature of the medium.