New Artists on SuperRare

New Artists on SuperRare

Jul 16, 2021 Curators' Choice / New SuperRare Artists

coffee work

New Artists on SuperRare

SuperRare
3 years ago

Weekly introduction to new artists on SuperRare.

Jesse Draxler

Jesse Draxler has been a prolific & influential creator in the metaverse since the early days of Tumblr. His multi-disciplinary work marries elements of fine art, illustration, photography, fashion, & digital applications. Draxler has had solo exhibits in LA & NY, & has been in exhibitions across Europe. Draxler collaborates with Hugo Boss, McQ Alexander McQueen, Ferrari, & more. He also works closely with the music industry creating artwork for Prince, NIN, Daughters, & Poppy, amongst others.

Hiss
Edition 1 of 1
3600px x 4500px 300dpi jpg – Ink on vellum with digital modeling. This piece is presented in SuperRare Exhibition “Unrealism: bridging the digital and physical realms”

Thobey Campion

Los Angeles, CA
Journalist and multimedia artist watching for what we can’t perceive.

The Gateway
Edition 1 of 1
Welcome to the first 4th-Dimensional NFT. Time travel with me: In 1983, the US Government produced a classified report testing the achievability of astral projection. The Gateway Report was declassified in 2003. It was missing a crucial page – I investigated the backstory. Millions of folks read my articles. Tens of thousands of astral travelers from around the world emailed me their experiences. Then one day, the missing page showed up. It contains a vision unifying quantum physics, spirituality and self-understanding. ‘The Gateway’ is a high-resolution image of the missing page 25. Zoom in to read 658 digitally micro-inscribed astral projection experiences (thanks for the lift SuperRare). ✨ JPG 19513 × 25500 pixels, perforated blotter paper, mixed media.

BarabasiLab

Boston and Budapest
Lead by Albert-László Barabási, BarabásiLab is one of the most influential labs in network science. It brings together scientists, designers, and artists, united by a desire to understand networks and complexity. Over 25 years, BLab has pioneered the visual language of networks and DataArt like the Art Network, the NFT Universe, and the award-winning Nature150 anniversary work. The BarabasiLab’s work is the subject of exhibits at ZKM Karlsruhe and Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest.

SuperRare Secondary Market
Edition 1 of 1
How does value emerge in CryptoArt? “SuperRare Secondary Market” captures the exploding secondary market, mapped for The New York Times Essay “The Art World Usually Works in Secret. Here’s a Look Inside,” 5/7/21. Each node is an NFT re-sold on SuperRare between April 2018 and April 2021, shown in the order in which the works were minted. Artworks are linked to all art owned by the same collector. Colors highlight the art collected by the top 20 collectors, listen in tags, and appearing as distinguishable clusters with distinct colors. Go to art.barabasilab.com/nft/ to see the individual collectors and artists on the map. ©BarabásiLab (Milán Janosov and Albert-László Barabási).

Pierre Schmidt

Berlin, Germany
digital collage artist

Colorblind
Edition 1 of 1
Follow the rainbow

Michael Marczewski

UK
Animated loops that mix satisfying motion, character and lots of humour.

Always remember to put the parking brake on!
Edition 1 of 1
If the parking brake is not properly applied then you’re AT-AT may go on a little wonder, with painful consequences.

Thibault Zeller

Paris
Artist x Director

The Sick Romance
Edition 1 of 1
“The Sick Romance” – 2000 x 2500 px – Animated Version // The first buyer will also receive a unique signed print edition and HD video file // © 2021 Thibault ZELLER.

Kako Abraham

?
I´m a Visual Mutant.
♥

Unnamed (Warrior)
Edition 1 of 1
This is a bag full of toxic people. People that takes advantage of you, that deceives you when you are vulnerable. People that knocks you to the floor. Just because they can. This is my black list. My revenge. My harmless and innocent revenge. It’s therapy. I’ll embrace this chaos and survive. I´m a warrior. // 1928 x 2500px / mp4

Rek0de

London
REK0DE’s work asserts itself as highly distinguishable in the field of 3D motion graphics. The imagery is fully engaging to viewers, presenting as a visually stunning curiosity all on its own. There is an elaborate level of detail that goes into each work that REK0DE crafts. It is remarkable to notice the nuanced concepts executed throughout, succeeding in peaking the marvel of audiences with its futuristic imagery and neoteric edge of design. Bio author: Jamie Favela – Visual Atelier 8

Twice as Vice by Playboy x REK0DE
Edition 1 of 1
Presenting the Miami Beach Art Collection, a collection of NTFs inspired by three powerful themes that speak to Playboy’s past, present, and future: Miami, crypto-currency, and the iconic Playboy Rabbit Head logo, which has served as a source of inspiration for artists for nearly 70 years. An expanded version of a digital exhibit previewed to thousands of Crypto enthusiasts at BTC 2021 Miami, the collection features original works by Ayla El-Moussa, REK0DE, Jon Noorlander and MBSJQ, and an original heritage photograph unearthed from the Playboy Archives, featuring a Playboy Bunny pictured water-skiing outside of the Miami Playboy Club in 1970, courtesy of the Playboy Archives. The Miami Beach Art Collection is Playboy’s first curation partnership with SuperRare.

Ayla El-Moussa

I am a visual philosopher combining the power of photography and film to capture the essence of nature, intimacy, and the sensuality of the female form.

Ride the Wave by Playboy x Ayla El-Moussa
Edition 1 of 1
Presenting the Miami Beach Art Collection, a collection of NTFs inspired by three powerful themes that speak to Playboy’s past, present, and future: Miami, crypto-currency, and the iconic Playboy Rabbit Head logo, which has served as a source of inspiration for artists for nearly 70 years. An expanded version of a digital exhibit previewed to thousands of Crypto enthusiasts at BTC 2021 Miami, the collection features original works by Ayla El-Moussa, REK0DE, Jon Noorlander and MBSJQ, and an original heritage photograph unearthed from the Playboy Archives, featuring a Playboy Bunny pictured water-skiing outside of the Miami Playboy Club in 1970, courtesy of the Playboy Archives. The Miami Beach Art Collection is Playboy’s first curation partnership with SuperRare.

Eric Rubens

Southern California
Eric Rubens is a Southern California based photographer who has grown an audience of nearly 1 million across his social platforms. Growing up on the California coast, he was captivated by color and the energy of the ocean. He formerly played professional tennis and worked as an engineer, before dropping it all to pursue his love of travel and photography. Some of his clients include Sony, Disney, Four Seasons, United Airlines, BMW, American Express, Belmond, Callaway Golf, and more.

The Break of Dawn
Edition 1 of 1
RESERVE PRICE
Staring at the ocean has the ability to change our brain waves’ frequency and puts us in a mild meditative state. The constant ebb and flow and soothing sound of the waves has a de-stimulating effect and provides a euphoric escape from our busy lives. Moments like these are ones to cherish forever. Feeling the warmth of that first sun ray, watching the lagoon illuminate with color, and being one with the flow of the sea. Sunrise is a universal language. Whether you just got through a tough day or lived the best day of your life, the break of dawn is a clean slate for us all. A breath of fresh air, a rush of energy, and the heart beat of life. That’s what I hope to share with this photo. In the end, we’re all just dreamers looking for our slice of paradise. This is the first piece in Eric Rubens’ “Colors of French Polynesia” collection – the first location to be featured on SuperRare. The initial collector will receive a signed physical print of the image as well as unlock GPS coordinates to find this precise location in our beautiful world. Size will be determined by the collector after purchase.

AICAN

New York
AICAN is conceptual art generated by AI in response to the question:
If we teach the machine about art and styles and force it to generate novel images that do not follow established styles, what would it generate? Each artwork is autonomously generated as an answer to this question. AICAN is created by artist and academic, Dr Ahmed Elgammal. AICAN is the first and only patented autonomous AI Art generation algorithm. AICAN has been widely exhibited worldwide.

Faceless Portrait #1
Edition 1 of 1
Faceless Portrait #1 is the iconic image of the “Faceless Portraits Transcending Times” exhibition, which was the first AI Art gallery exhibition in a major New York City gallery. – Exhibited at the National Museum of China, in Beijing in November 2019. – The “Faceless Portraits Transcending Times” exhibition was held at the HG Contemporary Gallery, Chelsea NYC, in February 2019. – Featured in major media outlets such as the Atlantic, Fast Company, Business world, Engadget and others. AICAN NFTs will be certified by Verisart. Each AICAN NFT from this series comes with the physical print, that was exhibited across the globe. 60”x60” print on canvas, framed, 18000 × 18000 pixels.

Playboy

Pleasure for all.

Playboy Bunny Kathy, Miami Beach, 1970
Edition 1 of 1
Presenting the Miami Beach Art Collection, a collection of NTFs inspired by three powerful themes that speak to Playboy’s past, present, and future: Miami, crypto-currency, and the iconic Playboy Rabbit Head logo, which has served as a source of inspiration for artists for nearly 70 years. An expanded version of a digital exhibit previewed to thousands of Crypto enthusiasts at BTC 2021 Miami, the collection features original works by Ayla El-Moussa, REK0DE, Jon Noorlander and MBSJQ, and an original heritage photograph unearthed from the Playboy Archives, featuring a Playboy Bunny pictured water-skiing outside of the Miami Playboy Club in 1970, courtesy of the Playboy Archives. The Miami Beach Art Collection is Playboy’s first curation partnership with SuperRare. NOTE ON MINTING AND PROVENANCE: To preserve authentic provenance of each token, each work in the Miami Beach Art Collection has been minted by the artist.

Nicoleruggiero

NYC
Nicole Ruggiero is a 3D visual artist from NYC whose work concentrates on technology and the emotional and social culture around it. Nicole creates stills, animations, and interactive AR and VR experiences and has exhibited her work internationally. Her most recent works explore themes of digital identities, online romance, sexuality, internet subcultures, escapism, virality, and meme humor.

Escapism Room
Edition 1 of 1
???????????????????? An artwork about escaping created during the pandemic.

Jennasutela

YAMSUSHIPICKLE
Edition 1 of 1
Remember the transience of life and the vanity of earthly pursuits. Cook for the community. Thank you, Mikko Gaestel, for the invaluable filmmaking support; Ian Hands-Portman, for microscopy; and Filip Setmanuk and Vanda Skácalová, for 3D animation. Throat singing by Arjopa, as recorded in Berlin by Ville Haimala.

Andy Kassier

Berlin, Germany
The conceptual artist Andy Kassier (*1989) lives and works in Berlin. His work includes installations, performances, photography, videos, sculptures and painting.
In 2013 he created his alter ego Andy Kassier, who ironically breaks the narrative of wealth and happiness in late capitalist society. On Instagram and in international solo and group exhibitions he continuously develops the long-term performance. Kassier observes phenomena in social media and the development of digital image cultures.

coffee work
Edition 1 of 1
“coffee work” is part of Andy Kassier‘s digital solo show “never not working, always loving” at KÖNIG GALERIE in Decentraland (June 20 – July 16, 2021). “coffee work” has 2,8 million views on Giphy. A picture is worth a thousand words. The Internet has internalized this saying. Instead of words, GIFs and memes are often used to express a feeling. Andy Kassier helps out with a series of GIFs that get up to 250 million views in the online database and search engine Giphy. In the mid-1990s, GIFs brought movement to otherwise static websites. GIFs 1.0, the “cave drawings of the web” (Tilman Baumgärtel) were little cartoon-like animations that consisted of a few pixels. When GIFs experienced a renaissance in the late 2000s, shared on web forums like Reddit and 4Chan and social media like Twitter and Facebook, they were looped screen grabs from movies, series and amateur videos. Like memes, GIFs had no owners, they were created by users for users, their creators are mostly nameless. Kassier joins the crowd of anonymous creators and makes himself a “model for shaky images on the Internet” (Spiegel) when he provides GIFs with the aim of viral distribution. He lets money rain, claps, drinks coffee, casually puts on sunglasses and sticks a rose between his teeth. Kim Kardashian and Andy Kassier are in the top ten of the most popular “Money GIFs”, and on Tinder he often uses roses to convey love messages.

HyperloopTT

Los Angeles, CA
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) releases the world’s first hyperloop-inspired non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The winning bid of each auction will receive an exclusive invitation to visit HyperloopTT’s closed-to-the-public research facility to see the world’s only full-scale hyperloop test track in Toulouse, France. The artwork was created in collaboration with Popular Science cover artist Tavis Coburn to commemorate the work being done in the Great Lakes Megaregion.

Great Lakes Hyperloop Chicago
Edition 1 of 1
Welcome to a new era. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Chicago became America’s railroad epicenter as a gateway between the Midwest and East Coast. Now, the city will lead the United States into a hyperloop-enabled future. HyperloopTT’s Chicago travel poster depicts the near-future when commercial hyperloop systems will sustainably transport passengers and goods between city centers at airplane speeds. Minted to celebrate the initial phase of the United States’ most advanced hyperloop project, the one-of-one artwork commemorates Chicago’s role in advancing profitable net-zero travel. The winning bid will receive an exclusive invitation to visit our closed-to-the-public research facility to see the world’s only full-scale hyperloop test track in Toulouse, France.

Carlosart

Brooklyn, NY
Carlos is a Venezuelan Illustrator, he is currently living and working as a freelance artist in NYC. His work is colorful, fun and has a humorous twist to it. He brings inanimate objects to life at times and he is able to find solutions to complex assignments through the use of symbolism and dynamic compositions. His influences include pop art, toys, abstract art, architecture and surrealism.

Workaholic #1
Edition 1 of 1
Animated piece inspired by the way we work in modern times; long hours, lots of coffee, plenty of screen time, overwhelmed with tasks and not enough time for anything. Dimensions are 1100 pixels by 1300 pixels, and format is .MP4

Grant Kirkman

I make surreal art based on my life experiences and journey from now I was bed bound for years and slowly lost some of my vision I use art as a meditation, expression. I love this wild ride thank you.

Trapped inside a room. Choose Wisely. Good version
Edition 1 of 1
This piece is about how the mind can trap you inside a box of many Worlds and thoughts. Inside a trapped room was inspired by being in a dark room for days only with this piece to keep me going this is the Good version. Life has its ups and downs which way will you go ?

Tarik Tolunay

Turkey
Tarık Tolunay (1970 – İstanbul, Turkey) Cartoonist, illustrator and CGI artist. He has produced cartoons, comics, illustrations and animations. He created a new style by blending his lines with traditional arts and digital technologies. His work focuses on city maps. It combines different time layers with stories. With his project called Fractal Istanbul, which took 10 years to build, he brings together the relationship between people and the city in extremely detailed and complex compositions.

Fractal Istanbul – Pandemi
Edition 1 of 1
Pandemi 2020 is a rare piece of the Fractal Istanbul Collection. It was the result of a 10-month study conducted by Tarık Tolunay during the 2020 pandemic days. It is a panoramic view from Istanbul, one of the most magical cities in the world. South – North axis view. Tarık Tolunay focused on the Galata bridge that connects the two sides of the historical city. With 2,5 billion pixels and infinite details, it got a unique and amazing image. … A 150 X 250 cm signed artist and physical Fineart will be sent to the NFT owner.

KIATANAN IAMCHAN

Base Artist in Thailand,Born in 1982. My works reflect with a passion for cartoons, games and capitalism ,Create character from mind and Convey in a personalized way.
Art collected by Khoyai Art Museum ,Bank of Thailand.

Spirit of the Guardian
Edition 1 of 1
When the secret cells in the brain develop perception to the extreme until crossing into a new universe dimension shape formation Born with meaning and strength, this is a new body armor that is like a guardian angel, mind and body, conscious, enlightened, see, perceive, see through everything. Digital PNG(41mb)6000x6531px

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KÖNIG GALERIE on SuperRare and in Decentraland: Exhibitions with Banz and Bowinkel, Andy Kassier

KÖNIG GALERIE on SuperRare and in Decentraland: Exhibitions with Banz and Bowinkel, Andy Kassier

Jul 14, 2021 Artist Statements

Banz & Bowinkel

KÖNIG GALERIE on SuperRare and in Decentraland: Exhibitions with Banz and Bowinkel, Andy Kassier

SuperRare
3 years ago

This week, Berlin’s KÖNIG GALERIE is presenting the digital solo exhibition LOOPS AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES by German artist collective Banz & Bowinkel and NEVER NOT WORKING, ALWAYS LOVING by Andy Kassier in Decentraland with all artworks minted on SuperRare.

With this in mind, we sat down with KÖNIG GALERIE founder, Johann König, to discuss the exhibition, the artists and the future of digital art.

Banz & Bowinkel, LOOPS AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES, KÖNIG GALERIE | Decentraland, 2021

Can you tell us a little about KÖNIG GALERIE?

I founded KÖNIG GALERIE in Berlin in 2002, we currently represent 40 artists. The program’s focus is on interdisciplinary and concept-oriented approaches in a variety of media. In May 2015, KÖNIG GALERIE took up St. Agnes, a monumental former church built in the 1960s in the Brutalist style, where museum-like exhibitions take place in two different spaces, the former chapel and nave. 

In April 2020, KÖNIG DIGITAL, the virtual gallery space, was launched with the aim to create experiences online. The digital visitor enters the exhibitions via the app KÖNIG GALERIE. KÖNIG DIGITAL presents digital solo and group shows by new media artists and by artists experimenting in the virtual space. We opened our second virtual exhibition space through a gallery outpost in DECENTRALAND, a virtual world based on the blockchain, with the group show THE ARTIST IS ONLINE in April 2021.

Metafurnish I 01, Banz & Bowinkel

Who are Banz & Bowinkel, the artists you currently exhibit at KÖNIG in Decentraland?

Banz & Bowinkel are a German artist collective. Giulia Bowinkel and Friedemann Banz live in Berlin and have been working together under the name Banz & Bowinkel since 2009. In 2007 they graduated from the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, their professor was Albert Oehlen, and started making art with computers. Their work includes computer-generated imagery, animation, augmented imagery, virtual realities, and installations. 

Mercury I 04, Banz & Bowinkel

Can you talk a little about the chosen artworks and why they’re a fit for such an exhibition and moment in time?

New digital sculptures and a selection of video loops of Banz & Bowinkel, which deal with digital image cultures, are shown. Their computer-generated art negotiates the changed conditions for the creation of images and their influence on perception.

We decided to mainly show the historic work of Banz & Bowinkel, their early work, like the METAFURNISH (2013) series. It consists of abstract compositions of digital objects rotating on turntables. This type of presentation is a classic of 3D visualization, as the viewer is shown the object from all sides and can develop a spatial understanding. The objects by Banz & Bowinkel, however, undermine viewing habits: physical properties, such as gravity, lose their meaning in digital space. Reflections show parts of the objects that do not exist. The tense puzzle pictures question the values of digitally constructed pictures that present perfect surfaces, but in reality often do not meet expectations.

Video loops are popular in the NFT space. With the early work by Banz & Bowinkel in their digital solo show LOOPS AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES, we want to highlight that this kind of digital art has a long history. 

RealTime, Banz & Bowinkel

In the description for the piece NAMESPACES it says: “machine logic in the real world has effects on human logic that are not always predictable“. Could you please explain what that means?

The NAMESPACES series works with the terminology of programming languages. Banz & Bowinkel use programming languages to translate our reality into calculable equations. And these equations, carried out by computers, in turn shape our reality in the 21st century. But the sober mathematics of an executed code differ significantly from what they are pointing at. In code variables get instantiated and deleted. If in real life such a variable refers to a living being, a computer wouldn’t care. What does it mean for us humans to live in a world run more and more by computers? 

NAMESPACES scrutinizes this threshold of abstraction and their counterparts in a runtime environment we humans call “reality”. „Namespace“ is a term used in the programming language. At the same time, we take the term „namespace“ literally and give the words a 3-dimensional sculptural shape. In this sense, the series consists of word pairs that are based on terms borrowed from programming language, such as „real time“, as well as on the changed use of terms through the Internet, such as „friend“.

coffee work, Andy Kassier

Can you talk a little bit about why Decentraland was chosen for this exhibition? More generally, what sort of opportunities does a virtual exhibition provide that don’t exist in the physical world?

KÖNIG in Decentraland is our fourth gallery location, our other locations are in Berlin, London, and Seoul. I have been interested in blockchain for several years, so it was a logical next step for myself to be present with the gallery in the Metaverse. Since we have been involved with digital art for a while, we were offered a piece of virtual land in Decentraland by the art collector and crypto enthusiast Shahin Tabassi that he had bought. He is interested in bringing the art world to the NFT space. Manuel Rossner, an artist and 3D-architect, interpreted the brutalist architecture of the former church St. Agnes, designed by Werner Düttmann and Arno Brandlhuber, in a 3D model and placed it in Decentraland. Digital art is presented in a genuine environment, and the visitors get to experience digital art in a gallery space. I am interested online as well as offline, how art can become an experience, how artists use spaces in which visitors experience something unexpected. 

Our first show was THE ARTIST IS ONLINE. DIGITAL PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES IN A VIRTUAL WORLD. It featured among others Jonas Lund, Anne Vieux, Mario Klingemann, Zach Lieberman, Keiken, Thomas Webb, and Addie Wagenknecht. Artists such as Manuel Rossner, Banz & Bowinkel, and Mario Klingemann are among the pioneers in the field of digital art, especially when it comes to exploring the possibilities of using new technologies in the artistic production process. We plan to keep holding exhibitions in Decentraland. The next six months are already planned, all of them with associated NFT drops. But we also focus on the traditional role of a gallery and therefore focus on what galleries do, which is making exhibitions. Online things are possible that wouldn’t be possible offline like having a constantly bursting sculpture. MERCURY (2016) by Banz & Bowinkel is a symbol for systems that renew themselves through self-destruction. Mercury is the Roman god of trade and merchants, but also of thieves and financial gain. New technologies such as blockchain and new currencies such as Bitcoin promise transparency and independence through decentralization. Trading in cryptocurrencies, on the one hand, is reminiscent of a game of chance due to its high volatility, in the darknet, on the other hand, cryptocurrencies are used because of the anonymity of their owners. So old problems appear in a new guise. 

clap, Andy Kassier

What excites KÖNIG about NFTs and the implications of digital art on the blockchain?

NFTs won’t go away. And NFTs have already gone down in art history with Beeple’s auction record at Christie’s. $ 69 million was paid for a digital file, making Beeple the third most expensive living artist. The three letters NFT stand for a revolution in art that has not occurred since the Impressionists and Duchamp. Digital art has been around for many decades, and the hype surrounding NFTs has led to digital art moving alongside painting, sculpture, photography and video. Digital art can now be collected like painting and sculpture as there is digital proof of authenticity. There are, of course, still many, very many copies roaming the internet, but that is exactly where the value comes from. “In the past, the value arose from a shortage. Artists who do not upload their videos on the internet may feel that meaning arises when they are seen in sacred spaces like a gallery. The opposite is the case. The more something lends itself to memes, the more it spreads, the more cultural capital it receives. And the more it becomes part of society,” said the artist Jon Rafman at the DLD Conference 2019 in an interview with the star curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.

That’s why we present the digital solo show by Andy Kassier titled NEVER NOT WORKING, ALWAYS LOVING on the ground floor of the gallery. A picture is worth a thousand words. The Internet has internalized this saying. Instead of words, GIFs and memes are often used to express a feeling. Kassier helps out with a series of GIFs that get up to 250 million views and a total of 850 million views in the online database and search engine Giphy. In the exhibition, his ten most successful GIFs are shown like in an endlessly repeating flip book.

baseball love, Andy Kassier

In the mid-1990s, GIFs made it possible for static websites to move. GIFs 1.0, the “cave drawings of the web” (Tilman Baumgärtel) were little cartoon-like animations that consisted of a few pixels. When GIFs experienced a renaissance in the late 2000s, shared on web forums like Reddit and 4Chan and social media like Twitter and Facebook, they were looped screengrabs from movies, series and amateur videos. Like memes, GIFs had no owners, they were created by users for users, their creators are mostly nameless.

Kassier joins the crowd of anonymous creators and makes himself a “model for shaky images on the Internet” (Spiegel) when he provides GIFs with the aim of viral distribution. He lets money rain, claps, drinks coffee, casually puts on sunglasses and sticks a rose between his teeth. Kim Kardashian and Andy Kassier are in the top ten of the most popular “Money GIFs”, and on Tinder he often uses roses to convey love messages. The artistic intervention using a mass medium generates anonymous fame, which is linked to the artist’s person and alter ego in the context of the exhibition.

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Playboy bunnies on the blockchain: Artists incorporate the Rabbit Head into NFT art on SuperRare

Playboy bunnies on the blockchain: Artists incorporate the Rabbit Head into NFT art on SuperRare

Jul 12, 2021 Artist Profiles

Above: “data privacy” by stockcatalog licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Playboy bunnies on the blockchain: Artists incorporate the Rabbit Head into NFT art on SuperRare

SuperRare
3 years ago

From Warhol’s Factory to today, the Playboy Rabbit Head has inspired artists for over half a century. This week, in collaboration with SuperRare, Playboy announced the Miami Beach Art Collection, featuring the animated works of Ayla El-Moussa, REK0DE, Jon Noorlander and MBSJQ (each incorporating the Rabbit Head), and an original heritage photograph unearthed from the Playboy Archives of a Playboy Bunny water-skiing outside of the Miami Playboy Club in 1970, all minted on SuperRare.

SuperRare sat down with Liz Suman, Vice President of Art Curation and Editorial at Playboy to discuss the collection and the role of Playboy as an artists’ muse over the last century.

SR: The Playboy Rabbit Head logo is such a well-recognized symbol, could you talk a little bit about how it has been utilized by artists over the years?

LS: One of the reasons I think it’s such a powerful symbol, beyond just its status as an immediately recognizable cultural icon, is because it’s equally universal and personal. Something about the cheeky but sophisticated figure speaks to people around the world regardless of their age or gender or background or point of view—but it can still mean something different to everyone. That dichotomy creates a rich complexity, which becomes a very interesting jumping off point for the creative process.

Incredibly, Playboy’s founding art director Art Paul sketched the original image in one take in less than an hour, having no clue that it would have such an important impact on the relationship between art and publishing, and on graphic design and logo development as a whole. A Rabbit of some kind has appeared on nearly every cover of PLAYBOY magazine since its second issue in December 1954 (oftentimes cleverly hidden – a little insider wink for those in the know). By 1959, the Playboy logo was so widely known that a letter mailed from New York with only the symbol as an address was successfully delivered to Playboy’s Chicago headquarters.

By being such a universal symbol, the Rabbit Head opens up an immense amount of freedom for artists to play with the iconography of it. It’s such a simple, clear symbol that even when reimagined it’s still irrefutably Playboy – and everything that represents. To that point, it’s served as a source of inspiration for artists of every ilk for nearly 70 years and counting. It’s been reimagined by everyone from Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Salvador Dalí, to a group of synchronized swimmers, to a researcher at MIT (The latter transformed the logo into quarter-millimeter-wide carbon nanotubes with bow ties approximately the width of a human hair).

Given its storied history across pretty much every discipline and medium in the art world, using the Rabbit as one of the themes for our first collection of animated NFTs felt like a fitting choice. It’s been exciting to see how each of the artists incorporated it into their creations.

With this iconic piece, I wanted to bring color, fantasy, life and soul to Miami and more importantly to Playboy. It was super fun blending the profound and psychedelic space-world of Astro & The Universe with the fun-filled world of Playboy. Astro really did turn up to the party, as well as adding humor with the party atmosphere. My aim for this piece is to make you smile and get into the party spirit, whilst holding a cocktail or 9.

— MBSJQ
LEFT: MIAMI DANCE

SR: With the above question in mind, what lies in the future for Playboy as a brand that collaborates with and supports artists? How does this SuperRare collaboration fit in with those goals?

LS: Our goal is to build on our 67-year-old history of championing artists and ignite meaningful conversations about censorship, sexuality and freedom of expression, by continuing to provide a platform for artists, writers, and photographers to break taboos and express themselves with total freedom. We’re having so much fun carving out new ways to use art and curation and collaborations to tell stories in new ways with new technologies. We’ve always taken risks when it comes to exploring new art forms; NFTs are just a natural next step of that evolution. SuperRare and Playboy are both brands that curate through a discerning lens and are pushing the boundaries of digital art by working with interesting artists with something to say.

Playboy Bunny Kathy, Miami Beach, 1970.
Minted on SuperRare

SR: Can you talk a little bit about Playboy’s commitment to empowering female artists?

LS: It’s a huge priority for us in both the digital and physical art worlds. One of my constant goals as a curator is to create opportunities to platform and collaborate with female artists. Recent examples include Marilyn Minter, Betty Tompkins and Shantell Martin, and we have a ton of other collaborations with diverse, boundary-pushing female artists in the works. Representation is always a priority, and it feels especially urgent in the fast-moving world of NFTs, which has (accurately) been characterized as a male-dominated space. It’s exciting to create opportunities to work with  incredible female artists that the digital art community–and the art world at large–may not yet be aware of.

With this piece, I wanted to capture a classic Miami setting combined with the scale and form of the iconic Playboy brand.

— REK0DE
LEFT: TWICE AS VICE

SR: Does Miami have a special significance to Playboy as a brand and company? Can you talk a little bit about that relationship?

LS: It does! The second-ever Playboy Club was located in Miami, on 77th and Biscayne Boulevard. The Miami Playboy Club opened its doors (and its dock) in September 1961 and maintained a presence in Florida for nearly a quarter of a century. The Miami outpost featured all the requisite amenities of Playboy Clubs at that time— a Playmate Bar, a Library, a Cartoon Corner and a VIP Room—but unlike other Playboy Clubs, its unique entrance let keyholders arrive by land or by sea (Guests could moor at the club’s private dock).

And prior to the club’s opening, model-turned-Playboy photographer Bunny Yeager regularly scouted for Bunnies across the city, including, notably, Bettie Page. Yeager herself was a trailblazer, credited with transforming the concept of the erotic pin-up into high art; her collaboration with Page catapulted both women to household names. 

In recent years, Playboy’s Miami footprint has included a consistent presence at Art Basel, and most recently, the 2021 Bitcoin Conference, where the Miami Beach Art Collection was originally previewed!

Miami Day and Night by Jon Noorlander

SR: How were the artists chosen for this collaboration?

LS: I wanted the collection to be both beautiful and playful; all of the artists in the lineup are people I knew could speak to the collection’s themes—a uniquely Miami aesthetic, the ever-evolving crypto-currency landscape, and of course, the incomparably iconic Playboy Rabbit Head—in compelling ways. Ayla El-Moussa’s animated water collage work is a beautiful marriage of digital art and fine art photography, and I immediately imagined how cool it could be to have her reimagine our August 1968 cover from her unique point of view. She’s also a huge supporter of the Oceanic Society, which felt fitting for a Miami-themed collection. MBSJQ’s intergalactic world is a perfect home for a Rabbit Head having a party. REK0DE’s digital creations are filled with witty nods to the art and crypto worlds, which he mixed with a dominatrix-inspired bunny. Jon Noorlander’s work is so smart and fun; we had a blast figuring out how to incorporate Miami and Playboy into a video game-like world starring a crypto-currency monster whose heavy steps cause Rabbit Heads to fall from palm trees.

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SuperRare is a marketplace to collect and trade unique, single-edition digital artworks.

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Curators' Choice

New Artists on SuperRare

New Artists on SuperRare

Jul 12, 2021 New SuperRare Artists

coffee work

New Artists on SuperRare

SuperRare
3 years ago

Weekly introduction to new artists on SuperRare.

Dana Robinson

Vacation All I Ever Wanted
Edition 1 of 1
800×800 GIF

Thomas Dubois

France
Thomas Dubois is an Award-winning artist, Director and Art director. From a young age, Thomas has developed a passion for creation, art and storytelling. His background is in architecture, but his passion for creation led him to produce a wide variety of visuals, scenarios and award winning projects.

Sandman
Edition 1 of 1
The Sandman of our dreams

JIMMY

🕧🕛🕧
Edition 1 of 1
3840X2160

Hannah Murgatroyd

UK
Characterised by subtle layers of light and colour, the filigree-like paintings and drawings of Hannah Murgatroyd centre on figures journeying through a world ancient, modern and, yet to-exist. Depictions of Aphrodite – and her island Cythera – are key foundation myths for the world she builds. Her characters are wanderers, strong yet ethereal, merging with the landscape and architecture that they quest and rest within.

Solstice Aphrodite
Edition 1 of 1
An Aphrodite holds a warrior soul. She is the embodiment of love and freedom. ‘Solstice Aphrodite’ glows with the light of eros, illuminated by the waters that surround where she stakes her ground, arms raised above her head, bathed in the reflective gaze of her solitude. This piece is presented in the SuperRare exhibition “A lot of what I’m about to tell you is made up”. It is the first in a series of Aphrodites to be released on SuperRare. Dissolving ancient and modern time, the Aphrodites are reflective of my feeling that technology carries its own obsolescence, is perhaps already a ruin. Painted over the Summer Solstice 2021, on Pocket Procreate on iPhone 11 Pro, combined with hand-drawn elements.

Digital_Douglas

Oracle
Edition 1 of 1
There is magic to be found in the everyday. This work is created from a single fragment of half-decayed cactus found in a field in Malta. That was five years ago, sometimes the process takes that long. You hold onto something seemingly meaningless, hoping it will reveal its secrets. This small remnant of plant-life had its own history. It lived and it died, at some point it was partially burned. Now, translated into the digital sphere it begins its next life. Animal, bird, skull, an uneasy shifting vegetal-digital form.

austin call

misinterpretations

nancy, we are over here!
Edition 1 of 1
nancy (not to be confused with her 500 year old cousin, mona) often disassociates, or becomes possessed as the family priest says. being the congenial artist i am, i had her sit for me during one of her ‘episodes’. if you are ever lucky enough to witness nancy looking as such, do not fret, just ignore her.

Leftyoutthere

LA // CHI
Multi-Disciplinary Artist. Studios in LA & CHI. Founder of OTG.

SINE NOMINE
Edition 1 of 1
Without a name.

Ansel Krut

London
Krut’s work remains informed by the years he spent growing up in South Africa, his art retaining what Ed Krcma in a catalogue essay called “an unapologetic will to insubordination” with imagery that has “arisen from a ferment of intermingled sources: from the enchanted collective narratives of folklore, to the differently dark ruins of history”.

Faces On Noses
Edition 1 of 1
This NFT is an animated version of a recent painting. The gradual reveal in the animation echoes the way the painting works in real life, the inching of an absurdity towards claustrophobia. A laugh that gets caught in your throat.

Justin Mortimer

London, UK
British painter Justin Mortimer has exhibited widely and internationally with one-person exhibitions in London, Los Angeles, Singapore and Korea. His most recent solo exhibition ‘Tomorrow’ was shown at Space K, Korea in 2020 and ‘BREED New Paintings’ was presented at Parafin Gallery, London in 2019. He is currently working towards exhibitions in Milan and Tokyo.

Kammer 4
Edition 1 of 1
My paintings always begin with a digital collage. I make many during the making of a painting. As the collage develops, so does the painting. This work contains some of the many collages I put together for my current Kammer series and expresses all the fluid permutations and serendipitous innovations inherent in this method.

Banz & Bowinkel

Germany
Giulia Bowinkel (* 1983) and Friedemann Banz (* 1980) live in Berlin and have been working together under the name Banz & Bowinkel since 2009. In 2007 they graduated from the Art Academy with Albert Oehlen and started making art with computers. Their work includes computer-generated imagery, animation, augmented imagery, virtual realities, and installations.

RealTime
Edition 1 of 1
CG HD Video Loop + .gltf file The NAMESPACES (2021) are word combinations borrowed from programming language and internet culture. Banz & Bowinkel resort to key terms such as “abstract class” and “real time”, alienate them and use them 1: 1 to make it clear that machine logic in the real world has effects on human logic. KÖNIG GALERIE presents the digital solo exhibition LOOPS AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES by the German artist collective Banz & Bowinkel in Decentraland, avirtual world based on the blockchain. New digital sculptures and a selection of video loops from the early work of Banz & Bowinkel, which deal with digital image cultures, are shown. Their computer-generated art negotiates the changed conditions for the creation of images and their influence on perception.

Mwadzame Omar

Nairobi, Kenya
Mwadzame Omar Kuta is a self-taught graphic designer specialising in digital art and surrealism. His work explores themes such as politics, pop-culture and traditions with a whiff of nostalgia. He believes graphic design should have a basic function and offer a solution to every problem.

PESA
Edition 1 of 1
PESA means money in Swahili. PESA depicts the future of the (Kenyan) currency and the interactive experience it will create with the user. The motion of the characters signifies the constant exchange of money.

Ayanfe Olarinde

lagos, nigeria
A visual artist currently exploring scribble art and lens based medium

Marc Simonetti

Annecy, France
I’m a french artist who worked for 15 + years on cover arts ( Dune, Game of thrones, Discworld, Lovecraft, etc…) , and on video games ( ubisoft, EA, Sony, etc), card games ( Magic the gathering), and movies ( Valerian with Luc Besson, Maleficient 2 , alladdin, etc…). Mostly known for the Iron Throne that I made for GRR Martin on Game of Thrones. I won 4 stabby awards on Reddit, one Chesley award.

Tower of Babel
Edition 1 of 1
A united human race in the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar . There they agree to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven. God, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world. This biblical story can also be found in Sumerian culture and resonates with the whole human history. This myth questions so many topics, from the relationships between humans, the social role of language and the power of a community. It also brings up the vanity of humans and the beauty of a unique voice. In many ways, that unique language could be assimilated to art, a form of communication that knows no boundaries. This piece was sculpted in VR, rendered in octane and then painted over in photoshop and procreate. This artwork has been especially created and won’t be used anywhere else. 1/1 png 4000×6000 pixels Every Collector that will bid on this artwork will receive an exclusive fine art print on a museum quality paper 16.5 x 23.4 inch printed with a giclee printer. The fine art prints will be limited to the bidders. First Bidder will receive number 0, and the winning collector will have the number 1.

Barry Reigate

London
Barry Reigate works & lives in London. He has shown work in numerous places around the world, inc. Tate Britain, The Hermitage, St Petersburg & Gallery of South Australia. Barry works with a variety of media & styles that incorporate elements from childhood scribbles, graffiti, collage & drawing. From making large complex paintings with cartoon characters, to big air-brushed canvases taken from tiny thumbnail doodles in his sketchbook.

Portrait of Artist as an Old Dog
Edition 1 of 1
A small, animated loop made on top of a unique drawing, that was specifically made for this piece of work. A drawing taken from a group of works made last year, during the first lockdown & only shown digitally over the internet from a gallery space. A body of work made while in isolation & through a kind of self-reflective despair. This piece of, “portrait of artist, as old dog” can be seen as an extension of those drawings, through an animated loop, where the only action taken place on the canvas, is a spider crawling across the surface & then falling from its silk thread. The first collector of this NFT will also receive the original physical drawing as well.

Andy Holden

Bedford UK
Andy Holden, born and living in Bedford, UK, is an artist whose work spans sculpture, large installations, painting, pop music, performance, and multi-screen videos. Often starting with an examination of an anecdote or a personal encounter, these moments are then unpacked and expanded in an attempt to make sense of a larger philosophical idea. Exhibitions include Art Now: Andy Holden (Tate Britain), Natural Selection (Bristol Museum) and the Future Generation Art Prize at Venice Biennale 2017.

Death Loop 1: Eternal Andy
Edition 1 of 1
Death Loop 1: Eternal Andy The Structure of Feeling Original sound design composed by Mira Calix This series of NFT’s consists of loops of the artist rendered as a cartoon version of himself based on his character that narrates the film Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape and the sequel Structure of Feeling. In this work the cartoon artist is subjected to a cartoon death – based on moments of animation from classic Wile E. Coyote and Tom and Jerry Cartoons. The death is rendered as a perfect loop, never dying but caught in a perpetual cycle, as if in a digital purgatory. In Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape the artist declared that the world had become a cartoon, and to understand the world we must examine how physics and logics works in cartoons and that the artist must too become a cartoon character. In the sequel, Structure of Feeling the artist explores the outer edges of the cartoon world to see what might be coming next – a total split away from the body into a digital space, whilst simultaneous returning to an isolated, bodily existence. This series of NFT’s explores the idea of the cartoon death as metaphor: the cartoon landscape as a space where you don’t die but get temporarily bent into the form you come into contact with (a wheel, a large rock etc.) only to later bend back into shape. The sale of proceeds from this work will go directly to support the renovation and re-opening of Ex-Baldessarre, a not-for-profit project space run by the artist that has been staging exhibitions in Bedford since 2018. The carbon footprint of the minting of the NFT will be offset to the best of the artist’s ability, calculated using Arial.

Damienmeade

London
Damien Meade is an Irish artist who lives and works in London. He has exhibited internationally, most recently at Plus One Gallery in Antwerp (2021), GAM Museum in Turin (2020), and MONA Museum, Tasmania, Australia (2019).

Untitled (DM-NFT1-2021)
Edition 1 of 1
Animated digital form

Taylor Adams

Freelance Illustrator. Comics, Music, Guitar FX.

The Ambush
Edition 1 of 1
Cyberpunk Ligne-Claire style illustration. Created as an artistic study and exploration of three artists: Geof Darrow, Moebius, and Josan Gonzalez.

28

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Motion Plus Design launches Ignition, the rarest NFT collection

Motion Plus Design launches Ignition, the rarest NFT collection

Jul 8, 2021 Artist Statements

Motion Plus

Motion Plus Design launches Ignition, the rarest NFT collection

SuperRare
3 years ago

Every week: 1 artist | 1 drop | 1 physical token

Motion Plus Design is the biggest festival dedicated to digital arts – and more specifically to motion design – for over 10 years with 3 yearly editions in Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles plus in 15 cities around the world for its satellite editions, from Rio to Istanbul, New Delhi or Shanghai. Its founder, Kook Ewo, is not only inviting on stage the superstars and Andy Warhol’s of tomorrow but he is also a digital art curator.

In 2021, like all of us, he was shaken by the NFT revolution: It is finally possible to buy digital art! And digital artists can finally earn royalties!

In reaction to this shift in art history, Motion Plus Design has decided to continue doing what the festival is internationally known for: Promoting great digital artists and discovering new ones. Adding a little touch of boldness…

That’s how Ignition is born: Featuring 20 artists from around the globe and spanning over 20 weeks.

The first NFT collection of Motion Design: 1 unique artwork associated with one-of-a-kind Motion Plus Design display case. A weekly rendezvous to hunt the more collectible talents in the NFT wild west.

The philosophy of this collection is to highlight a genius of motion design per week, whether it’s a superstar or an emerging one.

And to make this collection the rarest ever, Motion Plus Design has designed a precious case associated with the NFT. It’s entirely handmade in Paris by local printers and craftsmen, which make it a unique piece that cannot be falsified.

Inside, there is a unique detachable screen displaying the NFT that can be detached, hung on a wall or exposed thanks to an easel, a booklet presenting the artist and his artwork, a metallic laser engraved certificate of authenticity and a special surprise for the collector.

Every Thursday from July 8 to November 18, go to https://www.motion-plus-design.com/nft/collection/0  to discover a new amazing artist as well as the place of the sale, since each artist exposes and sells himself his NFT on the website or the auction house of his choice.

Week 1 ARTIST #01 : GRYUN KIM

Auction starting : 2021, July 8 at 07:00 L.A | 16:00 PARIS | 23:00 TOKYO.

On the Ignition collection page: https://www.motion-plus-design.com/nft/collection/0 and SuperRare https://superrare.com/kimgryun

Gryun Kim is a 3D Motion Graphic Artist known for detailed surreal animations bridging the imagined and the tangible through 3D visuals.

The artwork he has specially created for the Ignition collection, “Quantum Tree” shows one of the creatures of Asymmetry, the digital world generated by Artificial Intelligence. The ignition triggers the ‘Quantum Tree’ and begins to expand Asymmetry by creating another world.

In his creative process, the artist generated the animation of the machines of his Quantum tree in a random way by computer coding. Whether in this world or in the one he designs, the artist honors AI, using Octane Render, a software dedicated to the creation of photorealistic computer graphics. He says: “The reason I used this technique is because it is the story about the Digital world called Asymmetry. I want to make animations by the computer, not humans.”

How Motion Plus Design is born ?

First, this is the story of a passionate guy! Kook Ewo is one of the rare French title sequences designer who works both in France and in the US. He has collaborated on more than 40 films and series with world-class directors such as Guillermo Del Toro, Betsy West, Christophe Gans, Vincenzo Natali or Cédric Klapisch…

Amazed by the exponential inventiveness of motion designers, he was quickly convinced that these artists were the Andy Warhol of a generation, the rock stars of tomorrow. He naturally decided to create a festival to honor these geniuses and dared to invite international superstars to come and speak on stage in France. He unearths incredible speakers, with extremely rare sensibilities and ahead of their time… and it is a buzz! With his human approach, Kook encourages artists to compose talks that focus on their experiences, on what motivates them and expose their visions.

An approach that is not technical but inspiring, like a TED talk of graphic design. The event stimulates, grows, and is now exported worldwide!

“Just as there was the explosion of the art of cinema or video games, we are experiencing now the explosion of motion design. ” – Kook Ewo

Just as in their beginnings, cinema, photography or DJing were not considered at their true value, it is still the same for Motion Design,

a division of graphic arts. Every year, there is more and more motion designers, new job titles, integrated services in advertising agencies, specialized schools… The explosion is here.

But, what is motion design ?

Motion Design? This is: film credits (from the pioneering James Bond or Seven to the latest Marvels), series title sequences (True Detective, Westworld, Game of Thrones, The Crown…), the animated interfaces of our phones, the animated logos of the news, the best of video games interface (Fortnite, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed …), the craziest commercials, the revolution of medicine by the HoloLens, the most exciting immersive installations, and already the future of Virtual, Augmented, Extended Reality or Real Time…

What is Motion Plus Design ?

For over 10 years, Motion Plus Design has been acting on 4 stages:

The organization of the biggest international events dedicated to the ultra-creative art of motion design with 3 annual editions in Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles and in 15 cities around the world for its satellite editions: From Rio to Istanbul, from New Delhi to Shanghai…

Each event is one day of exclusive and inspiring talks where the stars of motion design come to speak on stage about their extraordinary careers, unveil their latest collaborations with the greatest directors or brands, and reveal current trends.

Paris
London

It’s also the motion-plus-design.com website, an educational interface where all talks, interviews, school world maps and learning sites are offered for free!

And digital art curation. These are “carte blanche” pieces based on collaborations between the greatest worldwide artists…

And finally, the first NFT collection of Motion Designwith a unique one-of-a-kind display case for each unique artwork.

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SuperRare

SuperRare is a marketplace to collect and trade unique, single-edition digital artworks.

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Weekly Top 10