From fine art to blockchain and back
Milan - Ninfa Labs
The exhibition From Fine Art to Blockchain and Back stems from a selection of digital artworks from the collection of NFTmuseum.art which was made by Ninfa, the art curator and advisor Luisa Ausenda and Jay Khalifeh, collector and founder of the Museum.
It featured 24 works that were selected because of their relevance –evident or alleged– in the traditional artworld. They were either work by artists such as Frank Stella, Takashi Murakami, Urs Fischer, Daniel Arsham, Vanessa Beecroft and Damien Hirst who have been widely recognized in the traditional art world and mint their digital work on the blockchain. Moreover, it showcased pieces by artists such as Alotta Money, Kevin Abosch, Nancy Baker Cahill, and Pak, who spearhead or have pioneered innovative digital artistic streams, and by emerging artists developing a signature digital language proceeding from both a traditional art education or the digital art ecosystem.
After the presentation, Ilaria Bonacossa, Director of Milan’s National Museum of Digital Art (MNAD), held a Q&A session with the collector and the audience.
Artworks
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Hand-hacked Bouquet 5
Artist: Jill Magid
'Hand-hacked Bouquet 5' is a unique artwork from Jill Magid’s series 'Out-Game Flowers', a series of digital bouquets plucked from the world’s most iconic video games such as World of Warcraft. A work from this series was also collected by the Pompidou.
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The Barn
Artist: Jason Ebeyer
'The Barn' by Jason Ebeyer is part of the series 'The Moors of Separation', an exploration of intimacy and solitude. Created during an isolating period of the artist's life, it is encapsulated in a collection of six new animated pieces, each of which features a bespoke soundtrack by Hayden Anhedönia.
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To Everything There Is A Season
Artist: The Haas Brothers
This ‘Haas Brothers' NFT is a rendering of and a digital signature for a physical maquette of the sculpture "Fruit Picker." The NFT comes with a 13 inch maquette sculpture and the first-of-its-kind opportunity to bid "in the room" on the Haas Brothers' full length Fruit Picker NFT and large sculpture via a dedicated phone line during the amfAR Gala on the evening of July 16th, 2022.
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Geometry VI 28/100
Artist: Frank Stella
This work is part of a series of 20 sculptures, 3D objects that, if requested, can be printed on a 3D printer (by the collector, who is sent the 3D printer file by the artist's studio). Each piece has 100 editions and is based on Stella's most famous sculptures. From a conceptual standpoint, as Frank Stella famously said regarding his work: "What you see is what you see".
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KEY
Artist: Kevin Abosch
Kevin Abosch's series "Comment out" is a generative work. The artist was inspired by the fact that many of the words he uses in his daily communications, such as his texts and emails, are related to the blockchain.
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Leda (Tale as Old as Time) 2/90
Artist: Anna Koak
Alongside 24 artists amongst which Sarah Lucas, Anna Koak has donated her work to Artof Choice in order to raise needed funds for abortionrights
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they're coming
Artist: Vanessa Beecroft
With a strong visual composition, this work represents Vanessa Beecroft's first recorded performance. Jay Khalifeh from @nftmuseum.art managed to convince the artist to turn it into an NFT for the Museum to acquire it.
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Eroding and Reforming Bust of Rome (One Year) #275/671
Artist: Daniel Arsham X Six N. Five
Daniel Arsham creates Pieces that last for one day, one month or even 70 years. In this case, in collaboration with Six N.Five, Arsham has created a one year cycle-artwork, which changes together with the four seasons.
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Metamask Horror
Artist: Kevin Abosch
Kevin Abosch's series "Comment out" is a generative work. The artist was inspired by the fact that many of the words he uses in his daily communications, such as his texts and emails, are related to the blockchain.
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Assume My Number #19/21
Artist: Alottamoney
OG crypto artist Allotamoney, had a deeply comical/critical approach to his work. In this work, a female figure -seemingly Marie Antoinette- turns into a cyborg as her palace becomes a crypto dystopia.
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Eating The Bubble #2/50
Artist: Kenny Schachter
This work refers to the tulips' financial crisis in the XVIII century, which was somewhat mirrored by the recent NFT market's crisis.
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Not For Burn
Artist: Pak
Not for burn. From the series "Ash".
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Bitchcoin #06.102
Artist: Sarah Meyohas
This project is one of the earliest forays into blockchain-based art and forecasts its future manifestations.
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Moongirl #3011
Artist: Emanuele Ferrari feat X-COPY
Moon girls is a collectible, generative art project. This specific work has been created in collaboration with artist XCOPY.
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Number One
Artist: Katharina Grosse
To create the interactive immersive experience, a bronze sculpture that was part of Grosse’s iconic solo show IT WASN’T US at Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin) was scanned. In this exhibition, a kaleidoscopic painting brought together colours and forms, natural and man-made surroundings, and visitors participated in an all-encompassing, pulsating interaction of hues. As a pictorial ground for her work the artist has used – besides the bronze sculpture – the floor of the Museum, the façade of the Rieckhallen as well as Styrofoam elements, which were shaped and scaled to their ultimate dimensions in several steps. Through AR, the viewers could scale the digital sculpture and explore its shape from all angles. The underlying sound loop which amplifyies the movement and the shatter of the sculpture was composed by the artist and Stefan Schneider.
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CHAOS #147 Infinite
Artist: Urs Fischer
'In this series, 1000 objects are combined into 500 sculptures which are given a title that usually refers to the two objects. Sometimes the blending creates a reference to something, sometimes just a feeling. 'CHAOS #147' Infinite is part of a collection of 501 unique digital sculptures, released as individual NFTs. CHAOS #147 Infinite consists of two converging objects in motion. The individual objects selected are engineered, cultured or manufactured by humans and sourced from the physical world and transformed into a 3D digital model through 3D scanning. A visualization can manifest in any format that is capable of displaying, playing or showing a digital sculpture in motion. They will exist in any space be it virtual, real, or a fusion of the two, now and forever, through current and future technology. Each NFT is composed of a reference rendering, the data to construct the work in any digital space and a set of instructions.
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Murakami.Flower #2612
Artist: Takashi Murakami
In this work from the "Murakami Flowers" collectible project, the artist's studio hand painted each pixel of the flowers. The piece contains a number of references that Murakami has had for over 30 years amongst which, for instance, the character (DOB), whom is cited in the figure's hat. In this series, flowers are expressed as dot-art, evocative of Japanese TV games created in the 1970s. The work has been developed with the number 108 as the keyword; a combination of 108 backgrounds and flower colors make up a field, and there are 108 fields. Each field has 108 flower images, resulting in 11,664 flower images in total. The number 108 is a reference to bonnō, or earthly temptations.
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I ACTUALLY PAID FOR THIS (edition of 100)
Artist: CB-Hoyo
In the artist's words: "This is my third NFT
As an artist, I think its significant to adapt, change, and allow my thoughts to resonate and be embraced by contemporary culture regardless of medium or image. I always have this apprehension towards cryptos, NFTs and virtual works out of my own concern of imminent disaster. Whether it will be an economical, physical, or astronomic, it feels like Crypto is within a space of constant threat and attack from different parts of society, yet it still thrives, grows and breathes under this threat. I find that exciting and terrifying at the same time." The work features the artist's handwriting.
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When You Could Fuck Forever
Artist: Nancy Baker Cahill
WHEN YOU COULD FUCK FOREVER It was time (to) travel. She buried her face in his armpit and inhaled deeply. Baker Cahill’s Slipstream series traffics in the eponymous fiction genre's "familiar strange/strange familiar.” Using the tools of digital simulation, Baker Cahill subjects her graphite drawings to a long odyssey of mutation and transformation to explore the epistemological process of truth making (and destroying). Inspired by pre-cinematic cave painting, drawing, and entangled human and botanical life, these digital animations grapples with the core question of the Ship of Theseus; what, after version upon version, remains of the original?
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Lost all my nerve
Artist: Damien Hirst
From the project "The currency". Originally there were 10000 NFTs, photographs of handpainted drawings made in 2016. The title in the back is always different and was chosen generatively. He lets the collector choose if to burn the physical or the digital. In the end, 40% of the collectors kept the digital work, 60% the physical ones. The physical works were burned in a performance with the artist in London.
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i could be an astronaut #4/18
Artist: Diana Sinclair
"ancestors trauma generations family dreams healing all take me where i am going in the stars"
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Aikebana N°63
Artist: Studio Brasch
'In the artist's words: "'Aikebana' is an ongoing project that blends my interest in Ikebana, the natural environment, abstract sculpture, and new technology (AI). At the core, it's my personal, public sketchbook.
Through this project, I intend to uncover novel forms that originate from nature but which have been filtered through our collective memory and finally selected and curated by myself.
I believe by doing so, that I'm able to discover forms that defy categorization and almost have a soul of their own, one that exists somewhere between technology and those who control it."
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Joan of Arc #1 By Rewind Collective
Artist: Rewind Collective
One of the first collective digital art projects, "Remember Us" is Rewind Collection's series of digital artworks which honor women and minorities that have been overlooked throughout history. The works are digital interpretations of historical paintings and the collective's original photography threaded together to highlight powerful female figures.
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Contractions #14
Artist: Loie Hollowell
"Loie Hollowell’s first-ever NFT project, titled ‘Contractions’, comprises 280 unique, generative works that center on the artist’s embodied experiences with childbirth. Based on Hollowell’s ‘Split Orb’ sculptural paintings, which she began creating following the birth of her second child, the ‘Contractions’ NFTs feature two bifurcated orbs situated one on top of the other, with the top orb representing the artist’s brain and the lower orb signifying her pregnant belly and cervix. This new series brings Hollowell’s explorations of bodily landscapes—with a particular focus on sex, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood—to the digital realm.
From Fine Art to Blockchain and Back
Curated by Jay Khalifeh, Luisa Ausenda and Ninfa
Ninfa Labs – via dell’Aprica 16, Milan
Special event: with Jay Khalifeh NFTmuseum.art’s founder and Ilaria Bonacossa, Director of the National Museum of Digital Art
Artists
Jill Magid, Jason Ebeyer, The Haas Brothers, Frank Stella, Takashi Murakami, Urs Fischer, Anna Koak,Vanessa Beecroft, Daniel Arsham X Six N. Five, Katharina Grosse, Loie Hollowell, Kevin Abosch, Kenny Schachter, Pak, Sarah Meyohas, CB-Hoyo, Emanuele Ferrari feat X-COPY, Damien Hirst, Nancy Baker, Cahill, Diana Sinclair, Studio Brasch, Rewind Collective