3rd Wave of Inspiration
Since 2003
Extra x Ordinary by Israeli artist Yuri Movshovich explores the beauty of ordinary objects through a lens of exaggerated saturation, intending to add an extraordinary flavour to the wholly ordinary and mundane. The intense saturation stretches the boundaries of the realistic behaviour of light, making the result look a bit real but also magical.
Are you familiar with Socmplxd? If not, you’re missing out on a talented artist who knows no bounds. Socmplxd is a visionary who seamlessly blends the worlds of film and fine art, creating unique and captivating pieces that are sure to leave a lasting impression. His artistic exploration revolves around capturing the ordinary facets of everyday life, resulting in digital realism that offers a unique perspective. Influenced by his experiences residing in Asia and the US, his distinct visual language draws inspiration from a blend of Eastern and Western cultures.
The artist’s creative focus is on contemporary still life and scenes, taking cues from a medley of traditions, pop culture, and the internet. Socmplxd’s background in the film industry as a set designer shines through in his latest series, where his adept use of staging and lighting takes centre stage. The hallmark of his digital art style lies in his graphic elements’ precision, simplicity, and sharpness.
Enter the captivating world of artist Eric Pause, where abstract figure paintings seamlessly blend multiple timeless moments into one stunning visual experience.
While most paintings capture a single moment, Eric Pause, an Ontario-based artist, aims to seize multiple moments in his striking figurative artworks. Drawing inspiration from the Italian Futurists, who merged time, place, and form, his art conveys motion and the passage of time through abstract shapes that overlap and intertwine.
Drawing various geometric shapes, Pause skillfully portrays figures in simultaneous states of activity and repose. His deliberate use of a restrained colour palette of blues, oranges, and white accentuates the composition's fragmented nature while providing a unifying element across his diverse acrylic paintings.
Andrés Gallardo Albajar, a Spanish photographer with a self-taught background, embarked on his photographic journey in 2013 by capturing the intricate interplay of silhouettes, colors, and shadows within the urban architecture of his hometown, Tallinn, Estonia.
It does not take long since his talent was mentioned by a London-based print house and ended as the “Urban Geometry” book release
As the son of architects, he spent his formative years growing up in Spain, immersed in a world of architecture books, magazines, and frequent visits to construction sites. The profound impact of this upbringing remained concealed until he stumbled upon photography as a hobby in 2012. During his childhood, art held no particular allure for him; his ambitions were firmly rooted in other pursuits.
The year 2018 marked a turning point in his journey. An invitation from a magazine led him to Seoul for an exhibition, a workshop, and a photography assignment. Then, he approached his boss, expressing the need for time off, and received an unexpected response. His boss encouraged him to follow his heart and commit fully to photography…
BOUBOY is an artist who combines post-pop art and crypto art, creating unique and captivating artwork that is both innovative and intriguing.
BOUBOY SPACE HUB
Through his skilful combination of traditional methods of creating realistic images and modern digital tools, he creates visually captivating artworks that connect the world of nostalgic popular culture, the advanced realm of blockchain technology, and internet memes.
This artist is perfect for you if you appreciate drawings and illustrations with a mystical touch. Garis’ artworks always showcase magical elements and intricate compositions, emphasising details and textures.
Hailing from Indonesia, Garis masterfully weaves magical components and vibrant orange and cerulean blue girls as focal points in their work.
Let’s discover the captivating world of Nick Sheehy, an Australian-born artist and illustrator currently residing in the artistic hub of London.
Nick started his artistic career in the wild landscapes of Tasmania, where he sculpted with bronze. But fate took him away from art for some time. However, life brings us back to our true passions, and that's what happened to Nick. Living in London, he rediscovered his love for drawing, inspired by the city's lively low-brow art, illustration, street art, and graffiti scenes.
He uses his unique artwork to explore the world of dreams, creating mysterious and sometimes semi-autobiographical scenes. His canvas serves as a platform for the eccentric characters that resonate from his childhood imagination, infusing his creations with nostalgia and amazement.
Nick's art showcases an array of subjects that depict a wide range of emotions. His portfolio reflects his limitless creativity, featuring everything from fanciful creatures to dreamy landscapes, and some find a hommage to Bosch’s bestiaries. He enjoys drawing unique fauna objects, an exploration of his imagination showcased in exhibitions, publications, and even some client projects.
Tito Merello Vilar is an architect in Barcelona and a digital illustrator. He often creates many digital artworks on an iPad.
He is the type of artist who seizes the moment, trapped in “la tranquilidad” and the serenity of the golden hour sunlight.
Every creator has a distinct voice and unique tale in the vast universe of art. Eugenia Shchukina, an artist, has been making waves in the contemporary art scene and garnering attention. An artist of exceptional calibre, Schukina's work navigates the intricate labyrinth of the human psyche, striking a balance between realism and pop-surrealism.
Eugenia uses classique techniques to create her captivating art, preferring dry pastels on paper. Her works often find their way into private collections around the world.
At the heart of Schukina's artistry lies an exploration of the human psyche's volatility. She explores the potential of reducing fears and illusions by analysing symbols and interpreting various aspects of personality using contemporary artistic perspectives.
Eugenia’s artwork often features the moth, a representation of our elusive fears and intricate emotions. Her pieces suggest that these aspects, much like the delicate and unpredictable moth, persistently exist within us.
The Spectacle, The Tragedy, The Passion
The world is fortunate to witness the combined talents of husband and wife artists Darren and Trisha Inouye, who undertake the moniker of Giorgiko.
As creators with distinct artistic identities who met at the esteemed Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California - Trisha's passion for drawing intermingles effortlessly with Darren's fervent dedication to street art. This blending has created an extraordinary form that splendidly merges traditional painting techniques with modern urban influences derived from street art culture.
Their extraordinary creations have made a global impact by bringing individuals and landscapes caught in temporal displacement to life - all while passionately exploring themes encompassing dislocation, empathy, and purity from profoundly innocent yet intricately nuanced perspectives. The vibrant universe curated by Giorgiko resonates deeply within us as it magnifies our longing for sanctuary while traversing an uncertain world.
Maxim Zhestkov
Simulation Hypothesis
20 June - 22 July 2023
Unit London
Unit London proudly presents Maxim Zhestkov’s debut solo exhibit, Simulation Hypothesis - a profound and immersive delve into the interconnection between artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and our human roots. Inspired by Noam Chomsky's thought-provoking literature, Zhestkov seeks to surpass the limitations of language by painting and creating art that explores originality and storytelling in novel ways.
Inspired by pre-historic cultures of cave art and ancient bas-reliefs, artist Zhestkov uses programming and software to create simulations that explore the visuality of a time before written language. By fusing machines and algorithms with Artificial Intelligence, he hopes to reshape the perception of AI from adversary to descendent of human consciousness. His current exhibit takes viewers on a conceptual journey through Clouds of Creation—a large-scale projection reenacting the Big Bang—and Dimensional Dreamscapes, which suggests that humanity’s desire to create, build, and alter the world is in harmony with primary cosmic energy.
AI enhanced photo of artist Refik Anadol experiencing his work
Glacier Dreams is a breathtaking new art commission by the talented Refik Anadol that sets out to capture the exquisite beauty and fragility of the world's glaciers.
The artwork results from an extensive research project at the intersection of multisensory new media art, machine learning, and environmental studies. Refik Anadol has processed a vast dataset of visual materials from online and institutional archives, supplemented with glacier visuals he collected in Iceland, through machine learning algorithms to create an audio-visual masterpiece. The artwork also features a pioneering artificial intelligence model that adds an olfactory component to the multisensory experience. This groundbreaking work of art is a powerful reminder of our planet's vulnerability and the urgent need to protect it.
Machu Pikachu
We tried hard, but then we cracked :D
Reddit user mossymayn imagined how Wonders of the World might look like following their popular misspellings. For this task, he asked AI to help him, and the results are beyond ridiculous and funny :)
The Grand Crayon
The main point we share is not only because it is funny but how AI tools democratise the onboarding to arts
The Eiffel Shower
Viagra Falls
Great Pyramid of Cheeza
Mount Plushmore
Great Cock of Gibraltar
Sydney Oprah House
The Trans Siberian Whaleroad
Leaning Tower of Pizza (Italy)
An audiovisual experience by artist James Paterson (@presstube) and musician Stephen Ramsay (@younggalaxy), that creates an eternal seven-day looping art broadcast.
The collection is divided into 6300 CASSETTES, 900 for every day of the week and all are available for purchase as NFTs
Buenos Aires-based Victoria Campobello, is known by her artistic moniker VXN. Her artistic style fuses 3D software and sculpture to deconstruct and transform bodies and environments. Through a blend of techniques, themes, and visual languages, she crafts intricate compositions that straddle the line between figurative and abstract, merging seemingly disparate aesthetics.
VXN's work envisions the interplay between nature, organic growth, sexuality, and cyberspace, capturing the digital age's disconnection between mind and body. She leads a collective of Latin American creatives at @CryptoArg_, focusing on digital art, physical exhibitions, and metaverse events in the NFT space. They aim to encourage a slower, more contemplative approach to art consumption and bring a conceptual mindset to the crypto-verse.
As a freelance 3D designer, VXN collaborates with clients in the fashion, music, and advertising industries. She is committed to challenging the limits of digital artistry and experimenting with various mixed-reality tools.
Jakub Serge Malec, better known under Sergeposters moniker, humbly calls himself a “gradient artist”. His finely tuned style is recognised at first sight and brings an atmosphere of a better future.
From March 15 to 16, 2023, the Moscow gallery Glubina hosted the exhibition "Forgotten Landscapes," curated by Narmina Askerova. This large-scale artistic event brought together works from 14 visual artists and photographers, along with a grand conceptual audio-literary performance titled "Lost in Between" by artist and writer Elena Timokhina. "Forgotten Landscapes" was dedicated to the artistic exploration of the existential rift between humanity and nature in the broadest sense. The participants in the exhibition, upon discovering this rift, took on various roles: explorers of the rift, apologists of the rift, mourners for the eras preceding this rift, researchers of the rift, and so on. The distance between modern humanity and nature turned out to be a rich field of potential meanings, a mystery, and a resource for drawing both inspiration and despair. "Forgotten Landscapes" serves as a multifaceted manifestation of the inevitable separation, where the positions and roles of people and natural phenomena are interchangeable and elusive, attempting to comprehend the irreversibility of this rift as both a socially nostalgic and eschatological phenomenon. Although the entire event represented a captivating cascade of artistic and performative delight, in this article we would like to focus on four participants who, in our opinion, realised the most distinctive and bold artistic concepts.
The reflection of the sprawling branches of an autumn leafless tree on a thin layer of water resting on some object in an urban environment. Ripples spreading from raindrops. Sandy park soil. Photographer Victoria Skutina sees the meaning of the rift between humanity and nature in the endless multiplication and deformation of reflections. According to her artistic concept, this rift has arisen due to the fundamental geometric difference between human-made fruits and those of the natural environment. Where nature is complex, fractal, and resists being divided into Euclidean primitives, the human dimension gravitates toward local, predictable forms and images. Of course, Skutina goes beyond merely observing that the surrounding environment is unconsciously complex, while human creation is consciously simple; nonetheless, this is an important assertion. Through her mesmerising and razor-sharp works, the photographer illustrates that this binary opposition exists but seemingly overcomes itself through the effect of one pole's reflection in another. A tree growing by itself can be mirrored on an ugly iron or concrete circle performing obscure social functions. The reflection of the tree is ephemeral, becoming a projection of one world onto another. Yes, this projection can easily lose its clarity with the breeze or a sudden downpour. However, it also signifies that the rift is theoretically surmountable or that it can be reconstructed by focusing on other, less noticeable connections between things and worlds.
According to Kseniia Chumakova, the main point of conflict in the rupture between nature and humanity lies not in creating a parallel "human ecosystem" in opposition to the natural habitat. It goes deeper and finds this rupture primarily in humanity's refusal to closely examine what surrounds them. It seems as if humans have fundamentally chosen not to contemplate natural things and to ignore what they do not understand within them. The rupture occurred when humans began to see in nature only what they chose to see. Consequently, Kseniia Chumakova's artistic project appears to be based on restoring to humans the motivation and time to contemplate nature. Her photograph "Nature" is both simple and complex, modest and provocative, compelling one to gaze into it. It seems to insistently exclaim, Identify me! Classify me! Find an explanation for me! This insistence emanating from the concise image of natural texture resembles the calls of New Age coaches demanding a break from the automatism of everyday life. Yet, Kseniia Chumakova also deconstructs this approach. She respectfully acknowledges that the human psyche optimises processes. Her works do not call for total mindfulness, grounding in bodily processes, or working with blind spots. On the contrary, she constructs meditative attractions that should work if not instantly, then in a very short time, rather than becoming a painful ordeal of yet another self-proclaimed course on transforming life in 21 days.
Yuri Kurganski is not only a talented digital artist but also a remarkable combination of ironic softness and romanticism. Where other artists become sarcastic and cut through the truth, he seeks opportunities to nurture lyricism, pastoral beauty, and humanity. His vision of the rift between nature and humanity is the most extravagant and touching. In his works, especially in “Autumn Jungle,” he comes to the realisation that it is not humanity that has severed its ties with nature but rather nature that has withdrawn into the shadows. Nature, not humanity, initiates the separation. The silent nature is both a mysterious, estranged figure and a mother all at once. Nature is present here, and yet it is absent at the same time. Nature has allowed humans to separate, but it continuously reminds them of its presence through traces and messages. The image of a glowing—almost biblical—tree amidst a dark artificial park, which resembles more of a model or a box filled with plastic trees, inexplicably stirs the heart and contains a powerful critical charge. This critique is subtle, non-obligatory, and indirect, yet it strikes directly at the mark. The rift exists; it is a paradigmatic event, but Yuri Kurganski seems to express on behalf of humanity that yes, we are still not ready for a complete break. We are probing at the unhealed wounds of our bodies and souls; we recall the golden age, but in truth, we have lost it not due to our own fault.
Elena Timokhina operates through a radical and breathtaking amalgamation of performative techniques: physical absence, deconstruction of verbal flow, semantic ambiguity, and post-dramatic structures. However, she does not deny the theme of rupture; instead, she complicates it, finding new depths and possibilities. Her performance becomes a crucial meta-commentary on the exhibition in particular and the global artistic process in general. Elena Timokhina conceptually chose to dwell in the interdisciplinary gap, yet she appropriates this rupture, which means she does not divide herself into human, nature, artist, performer, and writer. The main value of her work lies in the radical acceptance of herself and her lacunae. Her practice outlines new horizons for contemporary art and modern literature, horizons that are daunting to explore, but we must.
The key event of the two-day event "Forgotten Landscapes" was the audio-literary performance "Lost in Between" by writer, artist, and performer Elena Timokhina. This processual, meditative, and cross-genre work combined sound design, spoken word, and immersive participatory practices. The performance literally bridged the exhibition space, conceptual poles, the audience as a liminal entity, and the gallery space. Through her performance, Elena Timokhina summarised one of the main yet unspoken discoveries in understanding the rift between humanity and nature—within this rift, there are also fractures. This non-trivial idea arises in other gaps, in the divides between the possibilities of artistic mediums, in the divides between artists who seem united by the collective body of the exhibition but localised within their personal bodies.
The artwork's rhythm and pace replicate the gradual awakening of the eye and neural pathways, allowing for true discovery and challenging the viewer to question what meets the eye. By allowing the tree's non-ordinary life and image to evolve, the viewer's understanding of it expands, leading to a metamorphosis that reveals its truest definition.
To achieve this heightened awareness, the artwork incorporates respiration, high-level machine learning, psychedelia, and photographic exposure to an invisible light spectrum. The intention is to peel back layers of diffusion and blockages, invoking a guided meditation crafted through a learning machine paired with the organic invocation of the spirit of nature.
“A metamorphosis is at hand that does not distort or deform, but reveals the truest definition. This truth is only detectable in a state of heightened awareness – here achieved through respiration, high-level machine learning, psychedelia, and photographic exposure to an invisible light spectrum.
The intention is to peel back layers of diffusion and blockages, to invoke a guided meditation of sorts that is crafted through a learning machine paired with the intuitive, organic invocation of the spirit of nature.
To the machine, the tree is a conglomerate of pixels. To the human eye it is comprised of cells, even more so, to the naked eye it has leaves, branches, a trunk, bark. Both systems, the machine learning and the human viewer, are initiated into an altered state in which the tree begins to breathe and grow.”
Both machine learning and human viewers experience an altered state in which the tree begins to breathe and grow. The journey of microcellular breathing causes the audience's vision to be repeated, patterned, alive, dismantled, and reformed, revealing the beauty of the artwork. Machine learning is given its own equivalent of a psychedelic dose in the form of prompts and embeddings, leading to the subdivision of the pixels and the tree's genetic and photographic makeup, resulting in a digital organism.
The intent and techniques used in the artwork are deliberate, but the outcome is mostly unknown. Transformation, mutation, and change, on a digital micro cellular plane, and a soulful one, must be allowed to surprise and expand. The artwork's First Breath becomes the trigger to unveil what lies beyond and challenges the biological status quo, resulting in a euphoric, transcendent, and elemental experience.
The festival will be held on March 23, 24 and 25 at Disseny Hub Barcelona, a few weeks earlier than usual, since in April the digital art exhibition "Digital Impact" will be held at the same venue for the first time.
The festival presents a powerful lineup in its 22nd edition, bringing together a total of 65 speakers linked to the field of creativity, design, visual art and digital culture from countries such as the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands and Spain. Among the special invited artists are Alex Trochut, Brian Collins, Eddie Opara, Found, Framestore, Timothy Goodman, Gemma O'Brien, the iconic David Carson, Joshua Davis, James Victore and State, among many others.
OFFF, the festival renowned for constant change and diversity, is proud to announce its latest creative representation for 2023: “Cube.” “Cube” embodies the amazement and surprise artists evoke from the audience and begins with a set of rooms symbolising the diversity of the festival's speakers and artists' creative practices.
The OFFF's “Cube” campaign was brought to life by a team specially assembled for this purpose, consisting of Vasava, Barcelona (concept and creative execution), Found, London (CGI and motion), and Combustion, São Paulo (sound design and music). With its visually stunning and thought-provoking concept, OFFF 2023 promises to be a truly inspiring event that celebrates diversity, constant change, and the power of creativity.
Metaverse Greenhouse, Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, Heterosis, 2023 © Snark.art
Heterosis - the increase in such characteristics as size, growth rate and yield of a hybrid organism over those of its parents.
Snark.art, the innovation laboratory supporting artists creating at the cutting edge of art and technology, announces Heterosis, a new series of digital artworks and an immersive metaverse experience by Mat Collishaw. Created in collaboration with digital artist Danil Krivoruchko and metaverse architect EL-GABAL, Heterosis is a project produced for the OG.Art platform which combines blockchain technology and art to create a unique experience for collectors.
Heterosis will see participants cultivating and breeding virtual flowers that grow in a hyperrealistic metaverse ‘greenhouse’ – a digital recreation of a grandly decorated wing of London’s National Gallery, abandoned and reclaimed by nature. Each flower will be a one-of-a-kind, unduplicable digital artwork, but the works, both individually and collectively, become meaningful via the community that is created. Based on innovative technology, Heterosis invites collectors to participate in an art ‘game’ where their interaction determines the outcome of the works. The participatory nature of Heterosis means the artwork could not exist in any context other than on the blockchain.
Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, Heterosis, 2023 © Snark.art
Upon minting, each collector receives a Heterosis flower with unique DNA code and the combination of a few basic traits. Through hybridisation, collectors can discover advanced characteristics or mutations, and unlock new species, colours, patterns and forms. Their actions and engagement with one another will determine how the creation of new species and increasingly exotic and elaborate blooms unfolds. They become the agents of digital evolution and digital art collaborators.
Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, Heterosis, 2023 © Snark.art
The digital flowers have been developed using SideFX’s Houdini – a powerful 3D animation and visual effects tool used in blockbuster films, commercials and video games – and are rendered on Redshift. Uniquely, the hyperrealistic flowers are created via a process of hybridization that is not predetermined, requiring advanced technology to generate the dynamic content. The metaverse ‘greenhouse’ was developed using Unreal Engine, the state-of-the-art gaming technology to allow collectors to interact with one another and freely explore the environment no matter where they are in the world. The technology means they can have an interactive, collective experience on any device with exceptionally high-quality visualisation.
Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, Heterosis, 2023 © Snark.art
To hybridize, collectors must pay the flower’s owner a breeding fee. Collectors themselves set the prices for hybridization which can reflect if significant resources have been spent to create a new rare and exciting combination of genes. These dynamics create two separate markets – one for the purchase digital flowers and another for selling the opportunity to hybridize your flower.
Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, Heterosis, 2023 © Snark.art
Heterosis builds on Collishaw’s practice and cross-disciplinary approach which sees him engage with developments in technology and unafraid to venture into unfamiliar terrain. He says of the collaboration:
“I wanted to create an artwork that could not exist in any context other than the metaverse. The digital network that forms the basis of Heterosis allows all the participants and components to come together, bringing the artwork to fruition. The fact that the work can evolve through time, depending on what the owner will or won’t do, was something very interesting for us. Danil managed to encode all the different traits into DNA and designed an evolution process. These mechanics, are essential to the Heterosis project and are especially valuable to us as something that’s possible only in a decentralized space”
Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, Heterosis, 2023 © Snark.art
“This is the most complicated digital art collection I have ever worked on. Mat wanted Heterosis NFTs to be real flower species. A real life reference, which is super complex on the one hand and so familiar to everyone on the other, meant that even the goal of achieving a photorealistic visual was technologically very complex”
