Description
"ohh yes we need @joncates !!! absolute OG." – objkt.com on #GifArtDay (2025)
“jonCates is a glitch art and GIF lord, chair of Film, Video, New Media and Animation at the School of the Art Institute, and writer focusing on experimental forms of media arts and media art histories with a recent publication in “The Emergence of Video Processing Tools,” by Intellect. Cates’ work has been described as having “opened the field of artistic engagement and agency,” and “punk as fuck,” and just last year he curated a Glitch Art exhibition and event series in Canada, and exhibited his work in Germany, France, New York, and multiple locations online. His studio is the internet, several projects running simultaneously across the many opened tabs of his web browser. Entrenched deep within the glitch scene both in Chicago and internationally, Cates is currently planning a Glitch Art festival in Paris set for next year.”
Art 50 2014: Chicago’s Artists’ Artists — Newcity (2014)
“Jon Cates has spent years of his life perfecting black-and-white GIFs. It’s all about his tactics. In this one, “GrandGrimoireSkullFlowerTribute vrsn II,” Cates pulls one over on the usually very simple sexy-winking meme by using an array of texture, shading, and speed to create this phantom-like collage.”
GIF of the Day: The Phantoms of Jon Cates — Corinna Kirsh for ART F CITY (2014)
“Jon Cates’ selfie game is on point, taking Photobooth pics to a whole other level… All of his selfies are GIFs of him throwing up the sign of the horns and being an overall badass.”
COMPLEX ART+DESIGN: 25 GIF Artists You Should Know by Susan Cheng (2013)
“The culture of animated GIF is on the move, with thriving communities of artists working for decades in relative obscurity now earning more attention every year. Local artists like jonCates and events like the gli.tc/h convention on new media have made Chicago as interesting a perch as any from which to observe the advance of the GIF to the forefront of 21st century art.”
Steven Pate on Downcast Eyes in Chicagoist (2012)
“Is the animated GIF a form of digital folk art? Cates relates a story about cultivating his collection, where he contacted someone online who was making animated GIF self-portraits. It turned out she was seventeen years old and, like a self-taught artist, had little interest, at first, in contributing to a GIF museum, as she was simply, happily, creating her GIF portraits at home and posting them on her tumblr for anyone to see. This anecdote is not meant to reveal the strange power of the art world as it usurps every artifact in its path, but rather shows that digital art-making is a people’s movement. While technology has a tendency to be expensive, with a steep learning curve, it is simple methods such as GIFs that are readily accessible to virtually anyone. A positive attribute of GIFs, says Cates, is that they are “not innovative.”
In the studio, artists often self-impose limits and constraints on their materials and methods in order to explore every nuance of their medium and style. GIFs provide “excessive limitations,” says Cates. With limited color palettes, short looping cycles, and low-res image output, the inherent rules of the GIF format can empower artists to create.”
Jason Foumberg on Animated GIFs in Newcity Art (2011)