Georgia Smith MBCS visited Annka Kultys’ hybrid physical and VR gallery in Hackney earlier this year — here, Annka discusses the changing nature of digital arts, finding her niche as a bridge between tradition and innovation, and the rollercoaster of pioneering a whole new way to experience art.
Founded in 2015 and moving to its current space in 2022, the Annka Kultys Gallery hosts both traditional and digital artists and works towards connecting the two spaces, promoting the idea of ‘phygital’ (a hybrid of physical and digital). The small physical gallery hosts physical art on its walls, while virtual reality (VR) goggles simultaneously offer access to an expansive virtual gallery.
The usually reliable VR isn’t quite working when I visit — amongst worries about AI ousting humans, the traditional faltering of technology just when you need it is reassuring. But while the artworks themselves weren’t visible, I was able to explore the virtual space; a central room surrounded by black-walled alcoves which would usually exhibit the artworks.
Having experimented with the tech and got a feel for the hybrid gallery Annka has created, we sit down to discuss how she brought the gallery to life, and its role in the evolving art world.
Tell me a little more about this VR space you’ve developed, and what role the physical space plays.
Before we developed this gallery, we often had to fit digital works to screen ratios — but why should we ask artists to crop their work? The virtual space was created to display them in full. In addition we can show three dimensional works, like virtual sculptures, that you can walk around. It essentially replicates the physical gallery experience for digital art. We show physical art in the physical space too, creating what we’re calling the ‘phygital’ space.
How do you choose what to exhibit – is there anything you gravitate towards?
Choosing the works is very intuitive. I choose to exhibit works that resonate with me or that I feel say something worthwhile. In terms of exhibition design, it's another statement; the idea of this phygital space is to actually be, rather than just show, the link between the physical and the virtual. Curating the small physical space alongside the expansive virtual is a lot of work, but it’s very exciting.
In 2021 we had a show called AI Portraiture: us and them which was a group show where some works were made by humans, some of them were made by AI. We’ve also exhibited work by Ai-Da twice, which has been fascinating [Ai-da is a humanoid artist robot — find out more at www.ai-darobot.com].
So I suppose you could say I’m attracted to the theme of AI and humanity, and how we look at each other. I’m also interested in how artists are interacting with AI; last year we had the first show where everything was created with Chat GPT, but it was still under the control of the artist, which was an interesting interaction.
Tell us more about what phygital means.
‘Phygital’ means equality between digital and physical space, and we promote artists who use computers or new technology in both spaces. Digital or analogue work, it doesn’t matter — the question is what does the work say, and is it innovative? It’s the same question every gallery has been asking themselves since galleries began. I see myself as a bridge; I want to introduce the digital artist to the more traditional world and vice versa. We’ve had events where we invite artists and collectors from the digital space and the traditional space, and we had people from the digital space buying traditional art, and people from the traditional space buying non-fungible tokens (NFTs), all because they could physically connect and view each other’s work. I didn’t want another space that you check online; I want people to come because I want people to meet, to connect, to physically show each other what they do. So I see myself as a connector — a bridge, as I said before.
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You accept cryptocurrency, which is unusual in this sector. How have people engaged with that?
When crypto started, I thought — why not? In five years, this will be our means of paying. First we had cash, then we had credit and debit cards, and now this. It's not perfect, it will need some time to become really viable. But if people want to pay in cryptocurrency - and I’m all about creating something exciting and new – then why not? But we just facilitate cryptocurrency use, rather than make some kind of statement by insisting on it.
It's definitely not common, but when people do use cryptocurrency it tends to be Dazzle, or Solana. I know in different spaces, it’s Polygon. I think at a certain point it will be similar to switching between traditional currencies, but at the moment it’s quite clumsy, and you lose information on provenance when currency changes hands. But the beauty of using something is that it improves as we use it, so it’s great to be participating in that.
The art world can be slow to accept innovations. What has your experience been?
I'm still not accepted in the in the more traditional art world, really. We started in 2015, and only now are museums starting to show interest, so it’s been nine years. And I’ve found that to the digital space, I’m traditional – and from the traditional perspective, I’m different and new.
When I opened my gallery I showed artists with a big social media following – and everybody asked, ‘why bring artists whose entire audience is online? How can you sell these works that everybody can see easily on these online platforms?’ And at first, many digital artists thought ‘I don’t need a gallery’ because with social media they could even do their own marketing — and I questioned my role as a gallerist. But I was confident there was a space for my gallery, because collectors do want to own works first, to be able to say ‘I own this’. People love to have and show their NFT collections. And with the artists, I realised my role is finding new and interesting talent, storytelling, and selling, and a lot of those same artists who rejected the idea at first are realising they do need a gallery after all. Everybody has a different perception of what art is, and it’s part of my job to bring those perceptions together.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
