Online spaces have not only provided the artworld with a salve for pandemic-caused isolation in the real world, they have also extended the playing field for artists – and given a new meaning to togetherness. ‘During COVID-19, digital platforms became an extended mind space for people to feel that they can be connected more deeply and spiritually through technology,’ says the Shanghai-based artist Wang Xin, whose interactive installations meld the digital and sculptural. ‘These digital platforms can become a hive mind. People can share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings. They might not be able to hug physically, but they can hug virtually with cute emojis, music, and animations.’

‘While COVID-19 led to a two-year standstill for most of the world, it also led to changes in creative methods,’ adds the artist Cheng Ran, who lives and works in Hangzhou. ‘The future virtual world may have a positive impact on how digital artists define copyright and ownership, and the new models could tremendously impact on traditional art forms.’ However, he is also quick to point out that digital acceleration is scant consolation for the enormous human and cultural costs of the pandemic – and that the ever-growing technological encroachment on people’s daily lives may not be entirely positive either. ‘ COVID-19 has undoubtedly set the world back,’ he says. ‘And not just in terms of cultural development.’

The digital interactions that started as a desperate recourse two years ago have become standard practice as the pandemic oozes into year three, but new technology has long been part of many Asian artists’ palettes. For them – loosely grouped as Post-Internet artists – this post-Post-Internet era has meant an influx of latecomers to their long-standing party. Their gallerists and collectors, meanwhile, have shifted to more online exhibitions, programs, and sales, responding to the travel restrictions still in place for much of the region .

The primary silver lining of COVID-19 for gallerists has been the fostering of community it has prompted, with the normalization of the Zoom meeting fomenting truly transnational discourse, says Atsuko Ninagawa, owner and director of Take Ninagawa gallery in Tokyo. ‘Most of our projects have been community based – for example, South South, which hosts an online sales platform, an archive of talks, and other references promoting art from the Global South.’ She also highlights platforms such as I.G.A. (International Galleries Alliance) and Galleries Curate, which were both formed during the past two years.

‘I think the pandemic will have a lasting impact on how we appreciate art. It has opened up new possibilities for experiencing art without actually being there, and new modes of accessing different art scenes,’ Ninagawa continues. However she believes that in-person engagement also remains essential, which led to her launching Art Week Tokyo last November.

‘For sure, more conversations are moving online,’ says Pascal de Sarthe, founder and owner of de Sarthe, Hong Kong, which represents Wang Xin. ‘With COVID-19-induced lockdowns preventing us from conducting business as usual, we increased our online-platform presence and our digital sales have soared. For our clients it became the new normal.’

These sentiments echo the findings of Dr. Clare McAndrew’s recent study Resilience in the Dealer Sector: A Mid-Year Review 2021, in which 64% of surveyed galleries reported feeling that their online sales would continue to increase over the next 12 months, with only 5% predicting a decline. ‘Clients in general are willing to try out and embrace online activities,’ says Vigy Jin, a director of Shanghai’s MadeIn Gallery.

Works by Post-Internet artists have adapted easily to online viewing rooms, or OVRs, the virtual equivalent of an art fair. ‘We have participated in three editions of Art Basel’s OVRs,’ says de Sarthe, ‘which provided us with opportunities to present different themes, including our pioneering approach to Post-Internet art with artists such as Mak2, Zhong Wei, and Lin Jingjing, while also enhancing our leading position in Postmodern Chinese art by showcasing Chen Zhen’s masterpieces. All have helped us engage deeply with the international art community and connect with a wider group of potential collectors.’

Galleries surveyed for McAndrew’s report found that 33% of sales – or 37% if including art fair OVRs – happened online in the first half of last year. The majority of that transpired through galleries’ own internal platforms, including websites, OVRs, email, and social media. Online transactions had already climbed from 12% in 2019 to 30% in 2020. In the first half of 2021, online sales to new buyers represented 38% of all online sales by value, while another 25% were made to existing clients who were new to buying online.

Wang Xin praises Art Basel’s OVRs as a ‘good step’ – ‘Galleries have more opportunities to build connections globally with collectors and art lovers,’ she says. ‘This phenomenon may also push them to better consider how to present an artist online. What’s more, artists can experiment without physical or budget limitations.’

That sort of experimentation is a long-standing practice for Post-Internet artists like the Shanghai- and New York-based Miao Ying, who says COVID-19 had no impact on her already Internet-integrated works. ‘Websites have [always] been the core concept of my practice. I use the website as a canvas to start my projects and it develops into physical installations. I don’t think online exhibitions should be an image that is uploaded online. I also don’t think digital platforms should ever completely replace the physical world either.’

‘As an artist, I have always used video and digital media as my main creative method,’ says Cheng Ran, who integrates digital projects with installation and video works. ‘Currently I am exploring the possibilities in making images based on 3D technology.’ Early in the pandemic he collaborated for a second time with the Hong Kong movie star Carina Lau to shoot the VR film Always I Distrust (2020) using a remote team. This year he will finish another video work, Lisao, using new digital technologies provided with support from the K11 Art Foundation.

Along with working with the galleries Ota Fine Arts and Galerie Urs Meile, Cheng runs his own young artist incubator and collective: Martin Goya Business. In addition to its two physical spaces in Hangzhou, the project ‘has bought virtual land on The Sandbox, a conceptual platform to showcase the digital work of emerging artists.’

Miao Ying considers online possibilities as far broader than what receives the most mainstream hype. ‘I hate Meta, Mark Zuckerberg is pathetic,’ she says. ‘Meta is not only a self-saving strategy for Facebook, it’s a made-up concept and bubble for finance, hot money, and the stock market. I made VR work before COVID-19 and yet I have mixed feelings about the technology. There is still a long way for it to go.’ About non-fungible tokens, Miao Ying says, ‘I am more interested in web 3.0 overall. The key is decentralizing – I hope there will be some kind of decentralized web future, but we have to be aware technology is not neutral anymore.’

Wang Xin also highlights VR’s limitations placed by the accessibility of pricey hardware. She also believes that NFTs are in their early stages and can become more than ‘just fashionable crypto stuff to make money.’ Whatever emerges next with blockchain, the meta-universe and biometric technology ‘will help shape a new artworld digital environment and system,’ she concludes. ‘This is what I am really interested in.’

Lisa Movius is the China Bureau Chief and Asia Correspondent for The Art Newspaper.

Captions for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1. Miao Ying, Pilgrimage into Walden II, polarization (detail), 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna. 2. Detail of a work by Cheng Ran, presented at Art Basel Miami Beach by Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne and Beijing. 3. Visitors in front of a work by Wang Xin, presented at Art Basel Hong Kong 2017 by de Sarthe, Hong Kong. 4. Wang Xin, I Am Awake and My Body is Full of the Sun and the Earth and the Stars, I am Now Awake and I am an Immense Thing (detail), 2022. © Wang Xin. Courtesy of de Sarthe, Hong Kong. 5. Detail of a work by de Lin Jingjing, presented at Art Basel Hong Kong 2018 by de Sarthe, Hong Kong. 6. Miao Ying, Data Breach Deep Abstraction #2 (detail), 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna. 7. Miao Ying, Magic Attacks-Class Struggle Cracking Smash I (detail), 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna.