lowercase focus: NFT art
Welcome to lowercase focus, a bi-monthly program which seeks to highlight emerging artists and exhibitions over the world.
In my last focus article I looked at a number of emerging and mid-career artists working out of mainland China. These artists often respond to China’s peculiar socio-political era, doing so in a quirky aesthetic. This time around, I’ll be taking a look at artists who make NFTs, perhaps the most-talked about topic in the arts right now.
For those not familiar, NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) are assets verified by blockchain technology. In essence, they are a method of transforming digital items including artworks into assets which can be verifiably collected and traded.
Micah Johnson - https://www.artangels.net/art/micah-johnson
Professional baseball player cum artist Micah Johnson is expanding and pushing the field of digital art by being one of its first makers to create programmable artworks. I’ve been following Micah since he created ‘sä-v(ə-)rən-tē, a durational NFT which depicts an astronaut and two boys. Each year, on the birthday of each boy, ‘sä-v(ə-)rən-tē changes to mark their growth, aspirations and dreams; until they turn 18, when the piece dramatically change to show the astronaut figure by himself. His powerful works enable the empowerment of youth and question the ability for the less-fortunate to chase their dreams.
Blake Kathryn - https://www.instagram.com/blakekathryn/
Blake Kathryn is an artist working exclusively with NFTs who describes her practice as surreal, 3D and futuristic. Aesthetically, Kathryn is an excellent introduction to the NFT movement for her combination of pop references, vibrant colouration, exciting animation which is common in the field. Kathryn also incorporates celebrity collaboration into her works, where most recently, she worked alongside Paris Hilton on a project which can be viewed here.
Osinachi - https://www.instagram.com/__osinachi/
Osinachi is a self-taught Nigerian artist who looks at personal experience and the developing technological environment. He began by working on Microsoft Word, an extremely limited design palate, to illustrate and animate stories from his upbringing. Today, Osinachi sells his crypto-art on a plethora of platforms including SuperRare, Rarible and Opensea, and has presented at summits and conferences on blockchain technology in Africa and America.
Trevor Jones - https://twitter.com/trevorjonesart
Trever Jones is a Scottish artist who turned to crypto in 2017. Making the move to avoid the risk of counterfeit forgery taking place once his works passed into the market, as well as granting him instant payment direct from his buyers, he has been a staple in the digital market since. His art is a strange combination of surreal landscape, historical oil painting, QR codes and a lot more. He is also the first artist to incorporate AR into an oil painting.
Giant Swan - https://twitter.com/A_Giant_Swan
Travis Van Zanan aka Giant Swan is an interesting Melbourne-based crypto artist who combines the digital with the environment. Using a VR headset to sculpt and create surreal dreamscapes which are then superimposed into native Australian landscapes, his artworks have become a mediator between the real and the online environment.
Emerson Radisich is a curator, writer and educator currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
Cover Art : The Visit by Osinachi