Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile in Conversation with Fakewhale

Fakewhale: Pablo, could you share some insights into your early life and what initially drew you to the worlds of mathematics, economics, and ultimately digital art? How have these fields shaped your approach to collecting art?

Pablo Fraile: I’ll focus on how the art side connects. Like many people around the world, some are drawn to numbers, and others to words. I’m a structured, numbers person, and I had a strong affinity for mathematics from an early age.

Parallel to that, my family, while not collectors, were strong appreciators of the arts and culture. My father was more focused on architecture, and my mother on art and culture in general. Our home was architecturally forward-thinking and always filled with beauty, art, and culture—a rich environment to grow up in.

People often separate the domains of numbers and art, but I think they share certain components. This became important to me when I met my wife in college. Aside from having fun and partying like every other college student, many of our activities were culturally based—visiting galleries, museums, and cultural sites. The first gift I ever gave my wife was a work of art by Guillermo Mora, a Spanish artist we both admire, and we still have it in our collection.

Fast-forwarding a bit, I started my career in finance but soon found my way to blockchain. I was an early adopter and quickly realized the potential of the NFT ecosystem from its inception. This allowed me to merge my professional knowledge of blockchain with my personal passion for art and culture. It was a very organic process, and we participated just for fun, enjoying it and recognizing something special.

My wife has been a major influence throughout this journey. She’s an architect and designer and also engages in photography and painting. Though she doesn’t practice the latter two professionally, her artistic vision profoundly influences all our activities. She’s extraordinarily talented and has been a significant part of this journey, and we just have a lot of fun through the process.

Fakewhale: You were truly one of the first to make a significant impact in digital art. Yet, even in your early involvement, you have pushed for a maturation of the space with projects aimed at a broader concept of art, not just NFTs such as with Studio Drift. How do you foresee the evolution of the interaction between digital innovation and artistic creation, and what role do you see for thoughtful curation within this expanding framework?

Pablo Fraile: Yes, and here I want to be very careful with my words because I really don’t want to put art in a box, like saying art needs to be like this. I am nobody to define where art can or should be. Art can be anything. However, there are two general ideas that I think are important to note about this environment in particular. One has to do with the collector side—it’s heavily influenced by a speculative audience, often coming from blockchain trading, realizing that these artworks can, in some ways, be financial assets tied to a JPEG or to a work of art. This happens across all domains, but here it’s more pronounced, and not always in a positive way.

Secondly, I’m very libertarian in this thought, but I believe that people should be able to do whatever they please, as long as they’re not negatively impacting others. That said, I do think that if someone wants to approach art professionally and do it well, there are certain steps to follow. There isn’t just one path, but there are clear traits associated with greatness across any domain.

Art is peculiar for many reasons, but for artists who are pursuing it professionally and making a living from it, there are nuances, it’s a job and a profession like any other. I think it makes sense for artists to think more deeply about structure, the future, and how they present themselves to the world. Early on, there was little infrastructure for artists to maintain continuity, release works deliberately, and mature professionally. It was very fresh and broke many barriers, allowing a lot of creatives to participate. But if you want to be the best and take it seriously, there was a lack of thoughtfulness in the approach.

As for the future, I really don’t want to put art in a box. But in my personal experience, and as someone who has advocated for digital for almost a decade, I’ve realized that while digital art is revolutionary and opens barriers to entry, there’s nothing more powerful than a shared human experience. I’m a big proponent of bringing digital ideas into the physical world in ways that people can live through.

We’re seeing that audiences and society are clearly asking for these types of experiences. Look at MoMA, for example; what artists like Refik Anadol and others are doing. It’s always full, always well-reviewed, always engaging. We need more of these instances, and I think the space is naturally moving in that direction.

Lastly, we need to differentiate NFTs from everything else. NFTs are just a technology that digital art uses for accountability. There are small cases of blockchain-related art, but for the general conversation, it’s best to separate the two.