Objkt.one Debut Release: Curated by Fakewhale and Objkt.com
On the occasion of its highly anticipated inaugural release, Objkt.one – a new platform for collecting unique, one-of-a-kind, limited-edition digital artworks on the Tezos blockchain – made its debut on March 1st, 2023 during Art Dubai as part of a curated release involving the Objkt.com and Fakewhale curatorial teams.
More than an event, this release offered an unparalleled opportunity to fully comprehend and appreciate the significance of digital art in today’s world.
The launch of Objkt.one represented a significant cultural shift, where omni-comprehensive inclusion became a cornerstone of the collective art culture: a time where not only the inclusivity but also the quality of art takes center stage.
The result is a crucial evolution driven by the same principles that have defined the Tezos ecosystem since its inception, advocating for the value and rarity it encapsulates to finally be acknowledged to the fullest extent.
The release featured an impressive array of artists, including The Acid Camels (Coldie, Raphael, Nate Esway), Esra Eslen, Gary Edward Blum, Goldcat, Jenni Pasanen, Jesse Draxler, Kevin Abosch, Lorna Mills, Max Papeschi, Mimmo Dabbrescia, Le Chat N0ir, neurocolor, Omentejovem, Qubibi, and Zancan, in collaboration with Aleksandra Artamonovskaja.
For the occasion, from February 23rd-25th Fakewhale curated a dedicated IRL viewing of the collection ahead of the official debut, hosted at the Valuart Gallery (Lugano-Paradiso).
Following this initial preview, in conjunction with its debut, from March 1st to 5th, 2023, Objkt.one was showcased at Art Dubai’s Digital Art Pavilion (Booth X-13) alongside Fakewhale. This collaboration, powered by Valuart Studio, allowed visitors to engage directly with the platform and its unique artworks, creating a dynamic on-site and online experience.
Lorna Mills
Lorna Mills is a Canadian artist whose unique practice includes obsessive Ilfochrome printing, painting and online animated GIFs, to decontextualize imagery through the lens of internet culture.
Embarking on her creative journey in the early ’90s, she initially expressed herself through traditional mediums like Super 8 film, video, painting, and photography, before fully embracing the digital realm in 1993, and turning to GIFs a decade later.
Her artistic endeavors, steeped in Internet culture, manifest in the form of animated mosaic GIF collages characterized by distinct jagged, silhouetted edges resulting from a complex process that involves decontextualizing subjects and rearranging them into new compositions.
Lorna’s creations are a reflection of her profound understanding of the digital landscape and its potential, as well as an insightful critique of its challenges, including the notions of originality, ownership, and cultural appropriation in the digital landscape.
Zancan
A French generative artist, Michaël Zancan combines his traditional oil painting skills with computer coding to create impactful compositions that convey man’s connection to nature.
As an early luminary of the Tezos chain generative scene, Zancan’s body of work powerfully challenges outdated assumptions that generative artworks inherently possess an ‘algorithmic’ aesthetic.
His creations exhibit a distinct painterly finesse in their equilibrium and density, suggesting handmade craftsmanship, while simultaneously bearing the unique imprint of coded directives. But they also serve as vivid commentary on our increasingly digital world, challenging viewers to contemplate their role in the delicate balance between technological progress and environmental preservation.
Aleksandra Art
A creative producer with expertise in the art and tech sectors, Aleksandra Artamonovskaja empowers artistic expression through online and offline events that bring together like-minded blockchain enthusiasts and artists.
After a Master’s in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, she worked at leadership consultancy Brio Partners, then transitioning to art full-time.
In 2020, she co-founded Electric Artefacts, an advisory service specializing in digital art and blockchain. As .ART’s Ambassador and ex-Director of Partnerships, she embodies her social impact commitment. Co-founding RELI3F in 2022, she and Web3 leaders raised $1.5M for Ukrainian charities, rallying 60 international artists. Currently, she manages partnerships at Joyn.xyz and continues her personal art projects.
Jesse Draxler
Jesse Draxler is a cult-status creative whose influence has been felt far and wide throughout the digital arts space since the early days of Tumblr.
As a singular and innovative creator Draxler has threaded his brand of liminal, dimensionally fractured, stoic apparitions & ghost-drenched environments through the pillars of culture working thoroughly with the fashion and music industries as well regular illustrative contributions to major publications.
All the while maintaining a staggering studio practice, regularly exhibiting, and amassing dedicated collectors & die-hard fans in spaces both online and off.
In June 2023 Draxler released the second full-spectrum retrospective of his work in book form published by Sacred Bones, “The World is Mine and I’m Thinking About You”, accompanied by his fourth solo exhibition, “U&I”.
Jenni Pasanen
Creating in the new medium and the era of art, where creativity of machine & human unite as one: Jenni Pasanen is an artist who combines masterful digital painting with AI within captivating, dream-like works of art through her unique technique that fuses both tools equally by layering, twisting, and painting everything as one.
With her artistic roots stretching back to her earliest memories, Jenni’s repertoire has spanned a multitude of mediums, from acrylic painting and clay sculpting to animation and coding.
Educated in graphic design, she worked with brands and in marketing for 13 years as both a designer and animator before transitioning to a full-time artist in 2021. Simultaneously, she discovered Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and AI art, revolutionizing her approach to art.
More than a tool, AI serves as Jenni’s muse, challenging perceptions of art and its creation.
Mimmo Dabbrescia
Mimmo Dabbrescia is an esteemed 20th century Italian photojournalist who masterfully used his camera to bridge the divide between the worlds of art and journalism.
Starting his illustrious journey in Milan, he worked for prestigious newspapers, including Corriere della Sera, later establishing his own photojournalism agency.
During this time his lens captured not just eminent personalities such as the Beatles and Clint Eastwood, but especially the often-overlooked facets of painters, revealing their untold narratives with photographic chronicles on artists including Dalì and Guttuso — a visual expression of his meticulous craft, combining precision black-and-white photography with candid portraiture.
His foray into publishing and art curating followed, with the co-founding in 1975 of Prospettive d’arte. 2015 marked the opening of his gallery curated by his sons, “Art D2 Modern and Contemporary Art” in Milan, a tribute to his lasting impact on the arts and photography landscape.
Esra Eslen
Esra Eslen is an Istanbul-based illustrator known for her dark, emotive illustrations that mix beauty, power and violence with intense hues of red to explore a variety of psychological states.
Having made her debut in the crypto-art scene in July 2021, Eslen is currently refining her skills as a graphic designer at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University while carving out a unique niche within the digital art community.
Drawing heavily on the power of nostalgia and emotion, she meticulously crafts miniature worlds that offer viewers a visual and emotional journey into the depths of their own memories, childhood experiences, and life’s complexities.
This exploration is rendered through a fusion of hand-drawing and digital techniques, resulting in a powerful depiction of the human condition enhanced by her striking use of a recurrent palette that creates a dramatic interplay of contrasting, yet harmoniously integrated themes.
neurocolor
neurocolor is a Mexican digital artist who combines elements from the internet native visual movements to create colorful yet dark compositions with ‘Visual Alchemy’ and ‘Psycho Futurism’ aesthetics.
Once an oil painter, neurocolor transitioned to the digital art realm in 2020, finding it the perfect canvas for his unique artistic vision.
Integrating physical painting, digital photography, and glitch sonification, neurocolor creates digital collages that radiate his affinity for diverse aesthetics like cyberpunk, vaporwave, and generative art — an explorative approach, which has led to the creation of his signature visual language that encapsulates the very essence of his artistic philosophy.
With a focus on digital aesthetics, neurocolor accentuates the unpredicted beauty that arises from the image creation process, and the development of his own visual language. To him, it’s about the color and composition but above all: “the vibe”.
The Acid Camels (Coldie, Raphael, Nate Esway)
What happens when three creatives struggle to find enough outlets for the overflow of creativity? The Acid Camels Collective, formed by Coldie, Raphael and Nate Esway. An outlet for three creators to let their, “freak flags fly” as one founding member puts it.
Boundless creation as a mantra and apologies left at the door, they create to create and the output is always from the heart. They strive to make real art for the ones that are looking for creativity. If it speaks to you, they welcome you to collect with open arms. What comes next? “Probably more art”.
“This is something I have been wanting to do for so long. The list of ideas Nate Esway and I have been building over the years has just gotten to the point that something just had to be done. Raphael comes along and adds this new layer of ideation and fuel to make it happen and the rest is history in the making. I am so glad to finally push this collective of friends forward.”
– Coldie
Gary Edward Blum
Gary Edward Blum is a San Francisco-based artist who explores duality through realism and minimalist abstraction, where narratives about pictorial reality emphasize the coexistence of opposites.
The grandson of Italian and Swiss immigrants, his work combines painting and photography infused with narratives of exploration, independence, and a personal journey he undertook to India in 2000.
Through his artistic journey, he earned his M.F.A. from the University of California Berkeley in 2002, and a B.A. in Graphic Design from California State University Chico in 1993, and was an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts from 2015-2017. His work, displayed nationwide, resides in the Crocker and Monterey Art Museums’ collections, and has been reviewed by the LA Times, SF Chronicle, and Art in America.
Kevin Abosch
Kevin Abosch is an Irish conceptual artist who uses both traditional mediums and generative methods, such as machine learning and blockchain technology, to explore the nature of identity and value.
As a long-established artist in contemporary art, In 2018 Abosch introduced the groundbreaking “IAMA Coin Project”, marking his debut into the CryptoArt scene.
His novel techniques extend beyond traditional artistic boundaries — from incorporating his own blood to employing cryptographic alphanumerics, Abosch continually challenges conventional perceptions of identity and value. Furthermore, his works reveal the complex relationship between physical hardware and infinite digital spaces.
Recognized internationally, Abosch’s thought-provoking creations have been displayed at prestigious institutions including the Hermitage Museum, The National Museum of China, and The National Gallery of Ireland.
Goldcat
Goldcat is a figurative artist whose works range from digital sculpture to generative art, incorporating painterly expressions with digital media, where bold brushstrokes fuse with a melancholic essence.
Raised in Mombasa, Kenya, Goldcat discovered her passion for digital painting in her late twenties while working in an engineering firm. At this time, she began experimenting with digital art, using a second-hand tablet and art groups to develop a unique artistic voice; and was heavily influenced by weekly life-model drawing sessions conducted by a retired university professor.
Her work draws inspiration from elements of anatomy and music, with her initial raw marks dictating the direction of the piece. In every work of art, she emphasizes raw brushstrokes and sketch lines, preserving the piece’s emotional essence and originality.
Qubibi
A Japanese artist, Qubibi fuses painting with digital techniques to craft vibrant, abstract patterns each encapsulating life’s experiences, frequently through the mimizu, his artistic trademark.
Formerly an interactive web designer, Qubibi’s artistic journey is now centered around the intriguing crossroads of design and chance, with his generative works, marked by spontaneous evolution, often revealing patterns and forms evocative of natural phenomena. The role of sound is essential throughout his creative process, often setting the rhythm for every piece he creates.
The result, is an artistic approach that is more an exercise in serendipity than a methodical crafting process, where turing patterns emerging from his coding explorations create a sense of natural morphogenesis. An art, defined by the process where the viewer is bound to experience rather than simply observe.
Le Chat N0ir
Le Chat N0ir is an Egyptian artist working primarily in the medium of digital rendering. She holds a profound passion for the magical elements of light as immense fluorescence often characterizes her stylistic profile.
With roots in Egypt and experiences from France, her culturally rich background enriches her artistry, embedding elements from her diverse experiences into her work; not only deepening the complexity of her creations but also introducing a unique tapestry of cultural motifs.
Her artistic journey, which originated in photography and sculpture, evolved into the digital realm as she sought to utilize technology to intensify the viewer’s immersion within the piece.
As a result, Le Chat N0ir’s creative process involves intricate manipulation of her conceptual elements, in which every detail is meticulously crafted and placed within the compositions, resulting in dynamic, cohesive, and unforgettable works of art that reflect her unique artistic sensibility.
Max Papeschi
Max Papeschi is an Italian contemporary artist who creates satirical and controversial works questioning the values of contemporary society.
With a background in theater and film direction, Papeschi made his artistic debut in 2008, since then hosting more than 60 solo and group exhibitions around the world and experimenting with novel media and technologies.
A key turning point in Papeschi’s artistic journey was the 2014 release of his insightful autobiography, “To Sell Swastikas and To Live Happily”. This was followed by the monumental cultural-humanitarian project, “Welcome to North Korea,” in 2016.
In recent years, Papeschi’s artistic expression has further evolved, embracing the world of digital art and NFT technology, in which he continues to employ familiar pop culture characters and global symbols, transforming them into powerful tools of social and political critique.
Omentejovem
Thales Machado, better known by his pseudonym Omentejovem, is a Brazilian artist pioneer in the Brazilian cryptoart ecosystem, whose artworks translate stories and visions through color, resulting in spontaneous, expressive, strikingly intimate pieces.
Omentejovem’s work is marked by a journey of self-discovery and transformation. In his early career, he created cover art for local musicians and rappers, but his desire to be the creator led him to rethink his creative approach, resulting in a noteworthy shift in his artistic career.
Today, with his distinctive use of color and fluid creative process, he creates works that have a profound impact on his audiences and on the Brazilian cryptoart ecosystem.
His creative process, as he describes, is fluid and spontaneous, guided by intuition — an organic, free-flowing approach that has become the hallmark of his style, rendering each of his pieces a unique exploration of creativity and emotion.
fakewhale
Founded in 2021, Fakewhale advocates the digital art market's evolution. Viewing NFT technology as a container for art, and leveraging the expansive scope of digital culture, Fakewhale strives to shape a new ecosystem in which art and technology become the starting point, rather than the final destination.
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