Artists don't have to be concerned overmuch with the cycles of design fashion (which is sort of the same as fashion design). To paraphrase Dan Graham yet again: the recently outmoded is an interesting place to be working.
Thus it will be fun to make art with animated GIFs after they die a second time.
Touched off by Cosmopolitan soliciting for a "GIF artist" on Craigslist (they were also trolling dump.fm and seem to have some takers), Ryder Ripps' ad agency OKFOCUS says "ugh" and Tumblr-er extraordinaire Stephanie Davidson says "GIFs are over." Yay, now we can do some real work. Unlike when we last dorked around with GIFs in the art context, however, this time the gallery world will actually know what they are!