UNDRGRND DIGS 006
JANUARY 3RD, 2022
5 Artists From the UNDRGRND Collection
UNDRGRND DIGS is a periodical feature showcasing artists that the UNDRGRND curators dig. We sift through the social media and NFT platforms to find the best artists waiting to be discovered. UNDRGRND believes in the artists we feature and we will purchase NFTs from each artist featured.
Matasatu and Matabolong, created by the artists Dannel Reskela, are two lovely cartoon creatures whose stories are told across a cute NFT collection. The story begins with Matabolong's Avocado Journal 001, wherein Matabolong waits at a bus stop wearing a backpack made of a giant avocado. This delightful character doesn't know where the bus is going, but gets on anyway. Matabolong proceeds on a grand adventure through mysterious forests and psychedelic landscapes. While Matabolong explores the planet, Matasatu explores the universe. Matasatu Universe #001 "Earth" shows a one-eyed dragon gleefully wrapped around the world. As the series progresses, Matasatu's dragon form gives way to other curious creatures, such as a bird and a rat. The relationship between Matasatu and Matabolong isn't entirely clear, which lends the collection an air of playful mystery.
If you like animated math, you'll love Fringe City. This artist uses boldly contrasting colors to explore the interaction between iconic simplicity and mathematical complexity. Each NFT is visually striking, with movement slow enough to draw the viewer into its animated progression. While works like CircleWindow#028 incorporate complex progressions of relaxing organic curves, pieces like claw focus on the movement of a single element within the frame; the development of a bold black line, made to appear almost like a single, steady brushstroke. Other works in the collection, like dimension#55, create surprising depth that leaves the viewer feeling as if they've entered a whole new world of thin lines and shifting geometry.
In bold colors and distinctive shapes, stop motion animation is being playfully re-imagined in bestbefore’s (aka Andreas Karaoulanis) NFT collection. The movement within these works is quick and abrupt. It doesn't just draw you in. It demands your attention. My absolute favorite piece is titled trying to fit inside a cup of coffee. This NFT is partially framed by an animated dotted line, reminiscent of an old film reel. There are sections of what appears to be newspaper next to a cardboard cutout of a top-view coffee cup. An endless parade of colorful paper letters pours from left to right, like a river of bits of whimsy. Large blocks of ink pop in and out over large sections of the image. Somehow, inside of all of that, trying to fit inside a cup of coffee achieves a nice balance. Although this piece stands out, every one of bestbefore's NFTs represents a remarkable achievement.
3D artist and animator Pegi tells strangely compelling stories with characters that reoccur across several NFTs. There's The First Fear series and the Unfortunate Space series, both of which exude a unique mixture of child-like wonder and the haunting unknown. And then there's Flabooty, featuring three animated, booty-shaking pink flamingos. Beyond such humor, Pegi's bold use of the color pink makes the much more serious Absurd Luxury series incredibly striking. The first item in the series features a glassy pink spider walking through what may be a department store, appearing more like an appliance than an insect. It takes a special kind of artist to pull something like that off.
COMMUNITY DIGS: Karton Flash
UNDRGRND community members nominate their favorite undiscovered artists to be featured in weekly DIGS. UNDRGRND empowers its community to dig for bold, innovative, under valued NFT artists.
Karton Flash is a Turkish artist working out of Istanbul. He defines his work as inspired by Streets and Graffiti arts, and you can easily imagine some of his earlier works as murals on the streets of Istanbul. In them, you find the foundation of the characters that are now being featured in his current series. The Blockhead series is beautiful but also hard to look at for long. Like a car wreck, you don’t want to stare, but for some reason, you can’t look away. He wants to extract emotions out of you and it works. The focus on the teeth of the characters is brilliant. One look at them and you know something went horribly wrong. The colors, now having an intricate place compared to his older works, accentuate the unsettling feeling you get when looking at the paintings. Karton Flash has created a world like no other, and it begs to be viewed where it was born, in the streets. - Galaraga