The Hybrid Studio was founded in response to the lack of infrastructure available to independent artists. Offering a new model, we seek to empower interdisciplinary artists through consistent partnership and support.
Alex Darby is an interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, and cultural strategist whose work is rooted in a deep belief in the power of artistic collaboration. She founded The Hybrid Studio in 2021 to support new media artists whose work moves fluidly between disciplines, formats, and contexts—often existing in the gaps between conventional support systems. After years working at the intersection of art, technology, and entrepreneurship—Darby has witnessed firsthand how artists are increasingly being asked to function like businesses without the supporting infrastructure needed to sustain their practices.
Hybrid was born from that insight. A studio model offering consistent, accessible creative leadership and long-term guidance to support artists in refining how they work, building capacity for their practice, and staying rooted in their creative process.
Darby’s background includes roles at the Biennale of Sydney, where she produced large-scale, site-specific installations; the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, where she worked as an assistant curator; and as leadership at NEW INC, shaping the incubator’s early programs as Director of Strategic Operations. Her work has supported exhibitions and performances at MoMA, New Museum, Aurora Dallas, SXSW, Sundance, NTMoFA, Serendipity Arts Festival, NY Live Arts, MANA Contemporary, and she has collaborated with leading artists and studios such as Tinka Pittoors, Memo Akten, Stephanie Dinkins, Gerda & Jörg, Sougwen Chung, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Lisa Park, Scatter, Pariah Interactive, and Volvox Labs. Darby’s projects have been featured in The New York Times, Wired, FastCo Design, Forbes, Creators Project, and NY1.
Darby has contributed to groundbreaking XR conferences like Versions, supported future-forward projects through collaborations with Meta, Mastercard, Ace Hotel, and Spotify, was a producer on Nokia Bell Labs E.A.T Residency, is a co-creator of Unnamed Friends, a community-led funding and research collective, and is a dedicated mentor at NEW INC.
Darby holds a B.V.A. in Object Design and an M.A. in Art Curatorship from the University of Sydney, and lives between New York City and Sydney, on the unceded lands of the Lenape and Gadigal peoples.
