UNDRGRND DIGS 021
APRIL 18TH, 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. Purchases will be airdropped to reward UNDRGRND community members.
Miriam Hoffmann is a mixed media artist and former school teacher currently residing in the Metaverse. She creates exquisite portraits, such as Before the Known, of anguished and mournful individuals. Her collection of Daily Sketches captures the essence of sorrow in all its bleak beauty. The color palette varies between salmon pinks and pale yellows, as the artist tries to be positive, to neutral tones in Of the Future, through to murky browns and charcoal greys. A reflection of the days when she wakes up in so much pain she cannot use her right hand. She recently tweeted, ‘As a full-time artist who depends on her hands for a living, having arthritis sucks!’ The Of the Future Collection is an ongoing project rooted in futurism. It explores human existence seen through the artist’s anxiety lens. The cheerless works blend the boundaries of art and technology, representing transitional states - not quite traditional, not entirely digital. Not quite human, but not computer-generated in their misery. Miriam is thankful she was able to turn to art during some of her darkest days.
Ella is a parametric/generative artist with a fascination for patterns, mazes and circuit boards. The palette ranges from monochrome to bright primary colors, such as the Maze Series with its lines of thick hot orange to cobalt drawn with various scales and angles. At the other end of the spectrum, the primary color is black, as in Maze Black Primary3. She jokes, ‘Yes, I did miss the memo about the end of black backgrounds.’ Ella’s #genartclub artwork is aesthetically pleasing and keeps the eye tracing imaginary paths. The Neural Iterations series features the optimized neural pathways through 2800 evolutionary iterations. Diversification of thought allows different ideas to come into blossom. Mazes resemble neural pathways and the kernel of an idea. Generative evolutionary optimization of the neural pathways enables distinct ideas to be explored and visualized. Maze 020, in tones of rainforest green, resembles scaffolding surrounding a tower block and is reminiscent of an over-enthusiastic knob-twiddling session on a toy Etch-A-Sketch. The maze theme continues in her animated dot-to-dot figures, such as Maze Fem 4, which moves elegantly in slow motion bringing imagination and generative art to life.
Katerina Lime Blossom is a Russian artist. Like many ordinary Russian people with friends and family in Ukraine, she feels the pain and losses of her neighbouring nation. Katerina says, ‘All my friends and I are against any acts of war and support all affected civilians, even though laws restricting freedom of speech complicate this.’ Her latest NFT collection, Forest Of The Soul, reflects the current situation in the world. It brings to the fore the human soul, the soul’s intentions, and pains, highlighting important issues, such as being constrained by Silence and death. Her work aims to bring attention to authentic multidimensional Russian culture and remind us that Russia is not only about conflict. It is also about art, music, literature, and family. In her previous work, Katerina compares the artistic process of showing art to baring one’s soul. Naked in the eyes of the beholder. Self-acceptance portraits in the Being Open collection are a selection of nudes of various ages, ethnicities and shapes. It takes strength to accept yourself and open up to public view. Artists in Russia are losing the ability to sell art due to sanctions. We must support cultural growth so that artists can communicate their perspectives to the world, influence society, and guide social change, even in countries with censorship pressure.
![Should I throw my phone away? · La Sufridita [4/5]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/613978bc7e5cf900cb25f3a9/1650195823989-KLXES4C58MJ641I5E8WA/Cardalian+1.png)
![Why did I buy all this $hit? · La Sufridita [3/5]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/613978bc7e5cf900cb25f3a9/1650195830165-4SKN6EYOZC7MH1WUPXHJ/Cardalian+2.png)
Argentinian artist Cardalian makes nostalgic illustrations of self-help guides on VHS videotape, such as Why did I buy all this $hit? Step-by-step instructions on purchasing pointless nonsense followed by regretting having no savings. Ironically, the tapes themselves are obsolete as we no longer have the hardware to play them. Maybe VHS will have a renaissance like vinyl records. But then again, some things are best left in the past. We don’t regret the stuff we didn’t buy, but the places we didn’t go. Inspired by quarantine, many illustrations are in social settings like the Adrenalina series, which explores parties as rituals. Enjoyable devilish scenarios where adrenaline-possessed revellers dance, drink and cavort. Other artworks created in the style of coloured pencils display the tedious frustration of socializing and human un-interactions. Looking longingly into someone’s eyes only to find Silence is an answer. When words aren’t enough, be quiet. Our focus is on the foreground, but the silent one in the artwork prefers staring into the distance of the dimly lit bar. He says, ‘I love drawing bar scenarios. They allow me to work on a lot of little details.’ In another scene, “She’s busy, bro” (But I hope he can salt his fries before they get cold), we see a loop with the fleeting appearance of a waitress as she rushes past to serve other tables. A reminder that unless we grasp it, life will pass us by.
COMMUNITY DIGS: Yucai
UNDRGRND community members we refer to as “diggers”, nominate their favorite undiscovered artists to be featured in weekly DIGS. UNDRGRND empowers its community to dig for bold, innovative, under valued NFT artists.
Yucai is an artist from China who now creates her dreamlike dimensions in Venice, Italy. She uses her surreal imagination and playful drawing technique to express futurism and elusion. Each piece carries its own bubbly air of fantastical mystery. Sometimes, it feels like you're looking into a Where’s Waldo book from an alien world. There is a great deal to explore in the setting, the characters, and the action. We are so fortunate for her to share these thoroughly detailed freeze-frames of her mind with us.
