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{MetaverseMuseum;}
click on year titles to explore Voxels
{R(Evolutionaries);}
//the start
//of blockchain art
It has been 10 years since fine and conceptual artists began to interact with blockchain technology. These pioneers used blockchain as a conceptual medium as well as a tool to authenticate work, embed provenance and prove scarcity.
To mark a decade of blockchain art, MORROW collective presents {R(Evolutionaries);}.
A celebration of those who laid the foundations of this movement and those who perpetuated it.
It’s been ~14 months in gestation with 1,000s of hours of work (we've not slept much!)
We have created an overview of how {R(Evolutionaries);} came about, and to thank and acknowledge the people and resources that helped along the way >>> read more here (link to Twitter thread)
Blockchain technology was exciting and new, with the potential to completely change the digital art world and creatives all over the world were discovering this. From hackers to graphic designers, experimental musicians, video game developers and students of finance, artists found ways to harness blockchains and decentralized software to authenticate work, embed provenance and prove scarcity. This year also saw the launch of protocols on Bitcoin such as Ascribe's beta and Counterparty, enabling blockchain-authenticated digital art creation, transaction and exchange. Online gallery Cointemporary.com offered art for Bitcoin and Kevin McCoy co-conceived Monegraph with Anil Dash, a start-up allowing artists to monetize their digital work by logging it on the Namecoin chain. 2014 also saw Ethereum's first testnet launch.
2014's debutant protocols evolved, supporting the growth of blockchain-secured digital art. Edwin Rosero became the first artist to sell a blockchain-authenticated work via Reddit. This year also saw the launch of Spells of Genesis, the first blockchain-based mobile game with tokenised in-game assets – minted on Counterparty. 2015 also witnessed integration between blockchain transactions and physical 'lifeforms' (see Primavera's Plantoids in this room).
As the traditional art world began to take notice, Verisart launched to verify both physical and digital art using blockchain and an integrated Certificate of Authenticity. MAK Vienna became the first museum to use Bitcoin to acquire artwork (Harm van den Dorpel’s Event Listeners, a limited-edition screensaver authenticated via Ascribe and and sold through Cointemporary.com). Harm then went on to found left.gallery, an artist-run curated platform, the pre-cursor to many that followed.
Play-to-earn games allowing players to earn cryptocurrency through gameplay came to life in 2016. Christian Moss (@MandelDuck) developed NinjaSuit for SaruTobi marked the first instance of an NFT being used in a play-to-earn game.
2016 also witnessed the arrival of Rare Pepes - the community-crypto art movement that spawned from the historic NFT collection of 1,774 cards designed around Matt Furie's internet meme Pepe the Frog, and an essential incubator of the blockchain art culture that followed it.
As the founder of Rare Pepe Wallet and co-founder of Rare Pepe Foundation, Joe Looney developed the first on-chain art exchange that helped Rare Pepes scale into a full-blown crypto cultural phenomenon. Artists from the original Rare Pepe gang also gained prominence. Rare Scrilla created DJPEPE, the first blockchain art asset to include audio – it contained an embedded Soundcloud link of his music, making him an early blockchain performance artist. Robness debuted with PEPEBEEFTAXI, and Theo Goodman is credited as being the first Rare Pepe scientist.
The flow of collectibles picked up considerable pace with Larva Labs original V1 CryptoPunks being released in June 2017. Cryptokitties, digital collectible cats issued by Dapper Labs, followed soon after and slowed the Ethereum blockchain to a crawl with the volume of offspring produced... Community spirit was also strengthening. Gus Grillasca (an OG RarePepe artist) launched ArtOlin, a CounterParty marketplace aimed at giving the community a wider reach. Dada.art (which officially began in 2014), released Creeps & Weirdos, 108 collaborative pieces by 30 platform artists as a collection of tokenized art on Ethereum (and established early artist royalty concepts). Slothicorn Crypto Art Collective – founded by the artist Stellabelle - shared a similar model of decentralization, where the community were active shareholders in common artistic endeavours. Institutions were beginning to explore Web3 with Simon Denny’s sculptural installations at LA’s Hammer Museum and Harvest, Julian Oliver’s commission by the Skövde art museum being seminal shows.
In January at the Rare Art Festival, Homer Pepe sold for $38,500 - a ground-breaking event and sale which boosted the thriving ecosystem that was rapidly developing. SuperRare, an exclusive platform for blockchain art was launched, creating a new benchmark. KnownOrigin and R.A.R.E (Rare Art Labs) both with a similar remit, came to life soon after. Technology evolve to enable virtual exhibitions. Cryptovoxels (now Voxels) - a browser-based virtual reality world - became one of the primary metaverse exhibition spaces for blockchain art. An early adopter of Voxels was Benoit C's Museum of Crypto Art. In parallel, discussion and debate were abundant. Christie’s hosted its first one-day Art+Tech Summit, multi-disciplinary artist Gordon Berger spoke about the intersection of blockchain, crypto art and NFTs at TedXUAL in London and Art Basel dedicated a panel to "Blockchain and the Art World". The number of dedicated exhibitions increased, including "Proof of Work" at the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin.
A flurry of notable platforms emerged including: Blockchain Art Exchange, committed to supporting avant-garde, underground and outsider artists; Editional, an Ethereum-powered app to create digital collectibles; MakersPlace was launched, as was Rarible; an aggregated NFT marketplace. Larva Labs also came to market with Autoglyphs, the first truly on-chain generative art collection. As innovation expanded, exhibitions erupted. Martin Lukas Ostachowski’s solo Tropopause Contemplation – Blockchain Technology and Inclusive Decentralization – was a considerable presentation from this OG artist to illustrate the processes at the heart of the blockchain environment. Jennifer and Kevin McCoy's Public Key / Private Key at the Whitney explored institutional ownership of art. Creating the Future out of History by Bard Ionson and Max Osiris's Crypto Art Show also took place. And one of the most historic sales was by Coldie who listed a 1/1 Edward Snowden in a new 24hr auction format – now known as The Coldie Method™
As any art ecosystem develops, criticism, curation and commentary are crucial. The formation of Right Click Save as a welcome source for critical conversation was a big milestone for 2022. Institutions were also weighing in, merging digital and physical experiences. Museums and galleries dedicated more programming to digital art, the 2022 Venice Biennale (considered the Olympics of contemporary art) featured The Decentral Art Pavilion with 200 NFT works by leading artists shaping the space and SuperRare opened a temporary pop-up space in New York. The first solo show by an AI-based community-driven autonomous "artist" (Botto) took place: The Decentralized Unicists. Art Dubai Digital was inaugurated, marking the first international art fair to dedicate a section to digital and blockchain art. Around the world, summits, events, and conferences were popping up at pace. Despite museums dedicating funds to acquire NFTs, with LACMA notably committing to buying more NFT art by female artists, there was a decrease in momentum on sales of art as the latest bear market took hold. As the year closed, the Ordinals protocol enabled on-chain Bitcoin NFTs.
This was the year when NFTs exploded into the public consciousness; Beeple’s landmark sale of Everydays 5000 at Christie’s for $69m catapulted an influx of investment and interest. Platforms exploded across a multitude of chains, notable additions being Feral File's Marketplace using Bitmark; hic et nunc - the first major platform on Tezos; Aorist on Algorand, pledging to offset carbon emissions; and FX Hash on Tezos. Prices continued to skyrocket. Whilst major auction houses continued the bull run with a flurry of landmark sales, mainstream galleries also entered the fray – with Damien Hirst’s Currency opening on HENI and Urs Fischer’s CHAOS dropping on MakersPlace in collaboration with Pace Gallery. Artblocks emerged as a major force, with works by Tyler Hobbs and Dmitri Cherniak proving significant contributions to the space. Simultaneously, with the help of EmblemVault, attention grew on historic projects, as a wave of NFT archaologists appeared. Another technical advancement increased creator independence: the Manifold Creator contract - a standard ERC-721 minting contract with an extensibility framework allowed artists to own their own inventory and give permission to other platforms to use it.
As any art ecosystem develops, criticism, curation and commentary are crucial. The formation of Right Click Save as a welcome source for critical conversation was a big milestone for 2022. Institutions were also weighing in, merging digital and physical experiences. Museums and galleries dedicated more programming to digital art, the 2022 Venice Biennale (considered the Olympics of contemporary art) featured The Decentral Art Pavilion with 200 NFT works by leading artists shaping the space and SuperRare opened a temporary pop-up space in New York. The first solo show by an AI-based community-driven autonomous "artist" (Botto) took place: The Decentralized Unicists. Art Dubai Digital was inaugurated, marking the first international art fair to dedicate a section to digital and blockchain art. Around the world, summits, events, and conferences were popping up at pace. Despite museums dedicating funds to acquire NFTs, with LACMA notably committing to buying more NFT art by female artists, there was a decrease in momentum on sales of art as the latest bear market took hold. As the year closed, the Ordinals protocol enabled on-chain Bitcoin NFTs.
As the bear market continued, troubles and uncertainty in cryptocurrency led to prices of most assets sliding downwards. Platforms, exchanges, and gaming platforms laid off staff and the relentless promotion and media coverage of NFTs led to market fatigue. One of the biggest losses of this year was the closure of Async Art. OpenSea’s decision to cut mandatory artist royalties had an adverse effect on other marketplaces with Recur, a prominent NFT platform, ceasing operations just two years after its highly anticipated launch. However, it was not all doldrums. Whilst the media announced cries of ‘NFTs are dead’ it is arguable that it was just the hype that died. Le Centre Pompidou in Paris announced its crypto art collection and major solo exhibitions of blockchain art were displayed across the world allowing artists to forge longer term relationships with collectors. Popular culture continued to embrace the phenomenon with NFTs and the blockchain making a special appearance on The Simpsons during the Halloween episode. With the space moving away from flexing and speculative trading towards a genuine cultural foundation and ecosystem, the future for blockchain art is still looking bright.
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