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Art Dubai Digital, the first international fair section dedicated to showcasing digital art in a physical setting, delves into the broader digital culture, exploring the evolution of NFTs, cryptocurrency, video art, and AR/VR since the rise of digital art in the 1980s. This curated section, representing a diverse geographic base, features some of the most innovative and exciting artists in the digital space today, alongside commissions, talks, educational workshops, and special showcases.

Art Dubai Digital serves as a catalyst for the growth of contemporary digital art, reflecting Dubai’s pioneering efforts to position itself as a global hub for digital culture. The 2025 edition, curated by Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, will take a cross-disciplinary approach to investigate how artists and creative practitioners use artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and other technological advances to address key environmental, social, and political challenges of our time.

Gonzalo Herrero Delicado is a London-based curator, educator, and architect with over 15 years of experience developing curatorial projects and creative strategies for leading museums and cultural organisations worldwide. His recent work explores the impact of the climate crisis and digital technologies on the world through design, architecture, and art practices.

Currently, he serves as Project Curator for Serpentine Galleries in London on the annual summer pavilion commission. He is pursuing a PhD at RMIT University, researching curatorial practices for digital environments. 

.ART (denoted by Staff Writer’s initials, DK) interviewed Gonzalo Herrero Delicado (GHD) to discuss his curatorial practice, the themes and trends of the upcoming Art Dubai Digital, and the future of digital art in the context of global art fairs.

DK: Can you share your journey into curatorial practice and what initially drew you to this field?

GHD: I was trained in architecture. After I finished my degree, I realised that my range of interests is too wide to be addressed only through architecture. This is why I decided to start curatorial practice. I started focusing on public programs related mostly to architecture, or the built environment. Afterwards I continued organising other discussions, exhibitions and commissioning projects, which were moving from architecture to design, to fashion, to art. It has been quite an expansive way of understanding curating. Curating is no longer something that is focused on disciplines, but rather on things and topics. 

DK: How do all these different backgrounds influence your approach to curating?

GHD: I would say that my background in architecture is really helpful. Curators have to not only decide what the narratives are going to be, but also communicate it to different audiences and to the press, at the same time trying to make it financially viable. So I think that there are a lot of similarities to what architects and contemporary art curators are working on today.

DK: What are the key challenges you face when curating exhibitions that address complex issues like the climate crisis and digital technologies?

GHD: Nowadays we are bombarded by multiple global issues. There are lots of topics that are at the top of the agenda and I wouldn’t say that there’s one that is more important than the other. What is important in how we are responding to them. I respond contextually to the things that are happening around us. These responses trigger answers from the wider public. Obviously it depends on the quality of the work. We see a lot of works that are claiming that they are addressing climate change or the impact of digital technologies, but we don’t see it evidently. By the end of the day artworks have to drive certain emotions. If art can’t do it, then it doesn’t matter what the topic is.

DK: In terms of digital art, can you tell me a little bit more about your expertise in this sphere? Which projects were you focused on?

GHD: I’ve been working with digital technology for quite a while: from architecture, to design, to art. A couple of my recent projects, for example, like the exhibition Tomorrow Today at the Museum of the Future in Dubai, was addressing how different technologies from robotics to VR, to AR are shaping the future in the next decade. It was not only showing technological innovation, but also inviting different artists and designers to respond to that. Another recent project connected to those topics was the exhibition Virtual Beauty, which I’ve co-curated at the HEK, House of Electronic Arts in Basel, which opened during the last edition of Art Basel in June. This exhibition included over 20 artists, who were responding to how different technologies from IG filters to biometrics are shaping the way we look at ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world. This is something which is not only empowering us, being an alternative identity, but also it has an impact on our physical bodies. For example, many people are going to aesthetic surgeons, asking them to look like an IG filter. 

DK: When you were mentioning these two projects, you were enumerating quite some different mediums within the realm of digital art. What do you think we might expect during the Art Dubai Digital? Will it also be very diverse? 

GHD: Hopefully yes. We are moving away from NFTs, they are still a part of the market, but not the only product. NFTs are a way of commercialising digital art. But digital art was out there for more than 50 years in many different formats: installations, film, videos, virtual reality installations. The scope of what can be presented is almost endless. We are inviting galleries to present digital art in all the different formats. There will be mainly commercial galleries, but also platforms which are presenting or selling digital art. 

DK: Which themes or trends do you plan to explore at the Art Dubai Digital in 2025?

GHD: The format is digital art and digital art can be understood in many different ways. It can have a multidisciplinary approach. The idea is using that as a form of art, but it’s not final. It has to be engaging with environmental, political or social challenges that are happening in our time. For example, if we think about the works by one of the most famous digital artists, Refik Anadol, who is addressing the theme of the future of nature. And other artists who are looking at the potential future in very speculative and dystopian ways and using digital art as a format for discussing these ideas. 

DK: Right now you were mentioning diverse societal questions. Do you think there will also be a space for the topic like the healing power of art? 

GHD: There is obviously something very interesting when we are talking about empathy and ecology, we are talking about wellbeing. And wellbeing is something that goes not only towards non-human beings and nature, but it’s also wellbeing to ourselves. So how can we use digital art and technologies in order to rethink wellbeing in a moment when we are  oversaturated with all this catastrophic news? I feel like it once again depends on the narrative. 

DK: What excites you the most about curating the Digital Art section of Art Dubai in 2025?

GHD: I come from a curatorial background, working mostly with museums. It’s the first time I am curating a section within an art fair. Art Dubai is the largest art fair in the Middle East. It’s bringing underrepresented voices from the region, which for me is very exciting. Art Dubai has a very different approach in comparison to the other art fairs, it’s almost like a cultural institution in itself. 

DK: How do you envision the future of digital art in the context of global art fairs?

GHD: Not that many art fairs have distinct sections, focused on digital art. Art Dubai was the first art fair to launch a digital art section back in 2022. Other art fairs have replicated it later on. It’s still considered an emerging ground. In the future I think it might be more integrated within art fairs, not necessarily being a distinct section. I hope it will happen.