One way to measure popularity in the digital art space is by looking at collector’s offers. As I visit my collection, I keep getting ridiculously low offer notifications. Nevertheless, sometimes, you receive an above-average offer that you at least ponder for a bit. As time passes, one piece in my collection continues to get decent-sized offers (considering its 250 editions), no matter the market's state or crypto's value.
DECENTRALIZED by HEU is a rare portrait of hic et nunc’s founder, Rafael Lima.
DECENTRALIZED, the piece I am referring to, was created by an anon artist (HEU) and has a rich story I would like to share today.
The first and only known portrait of Rafael Lima, founder of Hic Et Nunc.
Minted Thursday November 11, 2021, a day that will live in infamy.
It is a portrait of hic et nunc founder, Rafael Lima, wearing 1800s military attire underneath a dark cloak. In the portrait, he is removing the dark cloak to reveal his military uniform and badges, as if he was hiding them or keeping a secret.
Rafael, originally from Brazil, created hic et nunc to support artists in places with fewer opportunities or the Global South. Being originally from the Global South myself (Venezuela), this feels like a noble and important cause. The platform experienced an explosion of popularity, attracting artists and collectors from all around the world and featuring an indie and underground vibe that people loved.
It felt like a line was crossed when he mentioned he hated the “Global North” and wasn’t happy to see artists and collectors from those regions taking advantage of the low fees and making a buck, too.
Unfortunately, as the site didn't improve much over time despite the strong community, volumes, and fans. For context, hic et nunc tied OpenSea — the leading NFTs marketplace — in traded volume at some point in 2021. A strong community of developers and community leaders pushed for improvements, but according to them, it was impossible to get past Rafael's beliefs, resulting in almost no upgrades.
The image perfectly depicts the series of events that happened that day (November 11th, 2022), when he decided to shut down hic et nunc front end, thus creating chaos, fear, and an intense debate that continues. I covered the events on November 11th, 2022, here.
Let’s go back to the mystery behind the artwork.
Turns out, Xer0x, founded an artist collective called HEU (where he commissioned works from 2021 to 2022). At its peak time, HEU had over 200 members.
I sent @iyusmn video footage of Rafa from an early hackathon as reference & he sketched up Rafa’s face & hands…. I then got @daniela___l to paint the remainder with various Easter eggs…
They were both commissioned & chose to remain anon.
- Xer0x
Both artists agreed to reveal their identities for this story.
Early DECENTRALIZED draft shared by Xer0x.
DECENTRALIZED is the perfect name for the artwork, as the hic et nunc contract and pieces remain active in the blockchain, thanks to its decentralized nature. A strong community has kept the marketplace running in what now is a DAO marketplace called TEIA.
Until next time,
- Kaloh
Kaloh
