UNDRGRND DIGS 008
JANUARY 17TH, 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.
Imagine being in a house. In a bedroom. You notice something odd, that your surroundings are made of pixels. Is this the metaverse? One of the walls melts away into a digital void. You're not in the metaverse. You're in an NFT by Yuri_jjjj titled Flying message, with a black and white photo of a some forgotten outdoor space on the wall that's melting away. This photo draws attention to the boundary between the real and the meta, reminding viewers of how thin this boundary may become. It's the kind of detail that sets Yuri_jjjj's artwork apart from the rest. With compositions that are vaguely reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch, the work draws attention to intersecting worlds. Each piece is equally captivating in its own way.
A Brazilian contemporary artist based in Italy, Luiz André Gama creates beautiful NFTs. Experiments with form and movement in the Revelos series feature vibrant colors and animation that's almost soothing. The Recursive Series is more haunting than soothing. Inspired by "M.C.Escher and mystery noire TV shows from the early 20th century," this series transforms people in old photographs into somber, fractal-faced entities. The Graeae shows three figures with vaguely bug-like faces at a coffee table with legs that go on into infinity. The effect isn't disturbing, it's intriguing. And the work's connection to Greek mythology only serves to deepen the intrigue.
Two women, a mother-daughter duo from Argentina, are behind the artistic products of Simulacrartist. The call their NFTs "visual sound artworks" and refer to reality as "simulacrum and poetry." In this spirit, each work points at the dilemmas inside of representing the real with the artificial. The HackUs 10.14.10 portal series takes this one step further, explicitly inviting the viewer to "peek into the cracks of the matrix." The series' combination of abrupt animation and cute percussive audio make the viewing experience immersive, pulling the viewer in. And it does feel as if Simulacrartist has found glitches in the matrix and minted these as NFTs, particularly with HackUs 104, which uses bold colors against a binary backdrop to tell the story of a blue dot flashing between realities.
Bernardo Liu is an urban artist and tattoo artist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His NFTs seem to have a hint of Andy Warhol in them. They make art from careful arrangements of everyday objects. A place setting. A spinning plate. A bright apple or other small object rolling back and forth across the screen. Liu's compositions each tell a story while exploring clear themes. In "Feito com amor" - Quentinha #8 Paçarin (dyslexic birds), the theme is that blue birds have taken over the dining area. One bird pecks at a sandwich. Another spins on a plate decorated with a bird motif. At once hypnotic and delightful, this work invites the viewer into an absurdity that brings out the beauty in everyday objects.
COMMUNITY DIGS: Isa Kosta
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.
Isa Kost is a prolific Italian artist based in Milano. A real OG, she has been publishing her work for years across blockchains and marketplaces, either solo or within larger projects like the DaDa Collective Project (where artists talk through drawings!) or the Art Vending Machine.
All her pieces have a common touch that make them instantly recognizable, like the « Natural Anatomy » series which is a surprising introspection of her own body. This touch is also perceptible in the visualizations she drew for the radical « Invisible Economy » project (working, among other things, on a basic income for artists). And if that’s your thing, there’s long conversations about data visualization featuring her on Youtube (science is art too!)
A comprehensive artist, immersed in current technologies and dynamics, Isa Kost is the prototype of the Web 3.0 artist. The radicality is assumed, and the apparent simplicity of the drawings convey much more feelings and information than expected from a quick glance. - Crypto Nico