A) Before we start, a couple of notes. It was very interesting to put this one together. The previous issue was from last summer. Space changed drastically since. Now it feels much more flowing & seamless to navigate between different niches, markets and mediums…
B) The point is, attention is shifting from digital/nft to just “art”. That’s a great achievement. Maybe we normalized nfts. The short term consequence is a huge blow in sales - ouch. But long term, it’s like running the gauntlet for a better payoff hopefully.
C) Secondly, I did my best as usual to diversificate the menu, trying to avoid the “usual suspects”. But, some of them are so consistently good that I can’t help but feature them
1) Best piece. Best piece. I already thanked @Ibl3D for expressing this widely felt mood. Very few artists in the last 100 years tackled the news as a theme, and even less did with such balance and sharpness in their intention. It takes huge balls to do that.
2/ While we’re at it, the exhibition by @andrea_ciulu with @satyrusNFTs is a thing of beauty. Array of great pieces. This one for example. Vintage photo and history lovers will recognize Normandy, which was visually mindblowing. This is a hyperbole of mindblowing
3/ “Black chalk on crumpled paper, pasted on paper” by @Trez_Art . If you like mixed media, look no further than this one. Particularly, the resulting 3d shading feels like a charred prop of some horror thing. Exponential reaction of medium-related meanings.
4/ You might have heard about some @williamapan drop. I don’t know generative art, but I know this is pure gold. There’s dozens of amazing pastel abstract drawings around the feed, look for them. The fact that this is code makes it all the more amazing. Early “drop of the year”.
5/ ”Lifting Polaroid emulsion onto watercolor paper” by @zzabegin I don’t know what it means but it makes me even more fascinated. Unique technique behind art with such strong personality. Look how the blacks interact with the transparency and crumpling. Great!
6/ You might know I love this subject and syntax myself. This is a superb example by @wonderkatzi. Classicity, photography, the reality of human bodies. As a plus, it makes me think of Jenny Saville. Thanks @youthndour for sharing.
7/ @Jvde_AI is the best pure “AI photographer” I’m aware of. Because he’s actually a photographer. Deep, compelling blacks and silhouettes. Unassuming yet magnetic camera look, capturing the feeling of set photography. Overall lust for shape and shading, on the lines of Newton.
8/ This is a beautiful example of “body of work”. So simple, right? Might puzzle some. But knowing @lilyillo ‘s work, it makes so much sense. Striking, here, is what’s missing, compared to her other artworks. It highlights the background: a silent, important presence in her art.
9/ “Done entirely by hand. Limitations of bodily mechanics, like subtle shifts of pressure, speed, or accuracy expose the real fingerprint of humanity and of working in a physical way” @tylerxhobbs . It’s paramount to tell what the unique value of physical art is these days.
10/ @heyjeres does it again. Never a rorschach thing was so relevant. The colors, the repetition, the pace. Rhythm. Art out of a mess. Quite like what rorschach itself aims to. Or soundwaves. Whatever impression you feel from it.
11/ Here’s the big gun. This is Richter, no less (thanks @g8dgtlart for sharing). I feel it’s extremely important to welcome such an artwork in a digital feed. What today would be a mildly interesting AI piece, 30-50 years ago was a groundbreaking prophecy as an oil painting.
11b/ Let me elaborate a bit. Richter is one of the true greats of this era, more than the wide audience knows. Time is confirming his work over and over. Appreciating him gives us a chance to interpret technological advances in a framework. /End praising
12/ @0009ine does something paramount: blurring the boundaries between mediums and testing the interaction between 3d space and canvas space. Such a relevant theme in these times when photos, graphics etc merge in a non-stop, mass-created stream.
13/ The most beautiful and simple geometric, b/w compositions you can get. Aggregation of cells. Kudos to Nature and @rudxane1 for making this.
14/ “Bent out of shape” by @James_Glohe . It takes some eye to merge pop, street, classic, deformation and medium-specific traits with the right balance.
15/ @Elizabedsh1 is consistently making the most relevant b/w, photography-based art. Wether it’s shape, meaning, or tools of the trade like exposure and blurring, she always delivers.
16/ Stretching, bending, shifting, while being a sculpture and a slit scan and whatever. Pieces like this one by @Empatia17 have all the presence and depth, all the complexity of meaning to become icons.
17/ @itsbobbydl ‘s work is peculiar. It’s not flashing, but there’s that strong, consistent vibe. This one, for example, I’ll take it over any synth photography which relies on narration. It does its job (showing our relationship with the past, medium-wise) with no words.
18/ @komodaharu is criminally underrated!! Artworks that range from the past to the present and future, through a variety of medium impressions, while being beautiful, enjoyable and so composed in tone, avoiding easy expressionism. Ten out of ten. Reward this guy/gal!
19/ @graphicapng is the guy who made pop art enjoyable again, far from the grand concepts of the past, welcoming the average man, making all the work, digesting and serving it. Memes are the new frontier of pop, some make conceptual art about it, he is making them immortal.
20/ Last but not least, a warm WB to @rbnsnstgrg , a fellow guy I appreciate very much. Here, their work for @the_deviates
That’s all folks!
I love how the author tackled this topic.