On 4 April 2024, Jean-Marc Scialom proposed an original auction, merging Urban and Digital Art (NFT). Broadcast on www.drouot.com, this ‘phygital’ auction (a contraction of the words ‘physical’ and ‘digital’) brought together physical and digital works, in an attempt to erase the boundaries between these two worlds.
Why this combination? Visual experimentation, the hijacking of codes and the democratisation of art are recurring values in both Urban Art and Digital Art. Both practices emphasise innovation in their creative approach to art and their break with traditional codes.
HACKING PAINTING - URBAN ART 2.0
In 2025, the historic Galerie des Orfèvres (Paris) is hosting an exclusive curation by Jean-Marc Scialom, who is continuing his exploration of the convergence of digital and urban art. He is highlighting a generation of urban artists whose work, while physical and rooted in the material, is profoundly influenced by digital aesthetics and codes.
Through this exhibition, visitors will discover a new facet of urban art, where painting and technology engage in a subtle but inseparable dialogue. Without being directly exposed, digital technology permeates each work, modifying the way in which colour, composition and form are conceived.
Featuring major artists: The exhibition illustrates how digital codes are infused into contemporary urban art: pixels and glitches transposed onto canvas, augmented reality and digital hybridisation, cybernetic aesthetics and digitally inspired visuals.
A dialogue between the real and the digital: Digital art is not deliberately on show in this exhibition, but it is omnipresent. Just as technology is transforming our lives, it is influencing the artistic material, restructuring the composition of the works and redefining the visual codes of urban art, whether on canvas or wall.
If HACKING PAINTING, through an auction, demonstrated the points of convergence between Digital Art and Urban Art, HACKING PAINTING - URBAN ART 2.0 shows their interpenetration IRL (In Real Life). Creative inspiration is no longer drawn solely from the human imagination, but also from a virtual matrix where the code becomes an extension of the artist's thoughts.