GM

sometimes a salute emoji is worth a thousand words:

🫡

Links for the Top 25 drops are HERE.

Three IRL NFTs 

O Dearly Beloved, perhaps the biggest issue with NFTs today is that, unlike traditional paintings or sculptures, we usually don’t live with the crypto art we buy. 

It can sometimes feel like the ultimate hoarding act: buying something and then immediately teleporting it to a distant closet that you only open on rare occasions (usually when you intend to sell something from it). 

You can almost hear Marie Kondo shedding a tear for our souls as we speak. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are three recent examples of digital objects escaping the confines of the hidden folder, including one upcoming collection:

Filigree by Matt Deslauriers

• Mint date: April 11

• Supply: 100

• Mint price: Auction 

• Blockchain: Ethereum

This upcoming collection by popular artist Matt Deslauriers via The Disruptive Gallery takes a more old-school approach. 

It begins with one of the most modern forms of visual art today: onchain gen-art involving AI.

In this case, the series comes in Matt’s signature layered style, which never fails to transport me back to those sedimentary art projects from middle school. 

But then it’s juxtaposed with truly old-school human craftsmanship. Specifically, high-grade prints using traditional screen-printing techniques, and hand-made books manually bound in London, the way our ancestors preferred. 

A nice meeting point between two worlds that more collections should explore.  

✨ Added to Top 25 ✨

1988 by Jack Butcher (minted on March 23)

Now let’s visit this surprise Jack Butcher open edition drop from Saturday, which was minted an astounding 148,000 times.  

A single object inspired by Damien Hirst’s theory that art should be dated based on when the artist came up with the idea, not when they finished the work. 

It’s a great exploration of the flimsy nature of IRL provenance, but the most relevant bit for us is the augmented reality component that lets holders place the art on real surfaces using their phones. 

Jack called this the “incredible paradox of an infinitely replicable (but provably scarce) object”, and then encouraged holders to place these images in many of the 95,000 museums on Earth. 

Do Not Touch The Art by Monster Mike (Minted on March 20) 

And for today’s pièce de résistance…

Last week saw “the first purchase of a Spatial Art experience transacted via blockchain”.

It went to collector Vincent Van Dough (who else), who bought this mind-bending piece by Monster Mike for 15 ETH. 

What even is a spatial art experience? 

It’s when you strap into a haptic vest, Quest Pro and headphones (or any immersive VR tech combo) and become One With The Art more-or-less. 

According to the artist, it'll be the first of many as he promises to bring spatial art into the mainstream.

You’ll need to watch this in action for yourself, an email won’t do it justice. 

NOTE: These drops are lightly curated. Our only requirement is that they have recognizable founders. As usual, DYOR. To learn more go here.

Creatures of the Night by Javier Tomeo

AI art continues to proliferate on Solana with this after-hours collection from Javier Tomeo.

One for the night owls, these animated pieces showcase ethereal scenes of nocturnal animals (and other beings) in an often-blurred impressionist style, giving them a nostalgic feel, as if recalling a hazy memory.

In other words, ‘tis a vibe.

RuneGenstone by OTO

Community projects are sprawling up around The Runestone following its massive 1/1 sale and subsequent airdrop, like this upcoming free drop by Japanese artist OTO.

It’s a generative art edition inspired by the the Runestone’s logo, with an emphasis on iconography, which has a Bitcoin-native feature: the art evolves after Bitcoin hits block #840,000 (the halving), turning up the speed and complexity of the animation.

Here’s to more dynamic generative art on Bitcoin 🥂