Artillery Magazine

Tag: web3

  • Cold and Down The Digital

    Cold and Down
    The Digital

    Alt Coins, Bear Market, Crypto Winter, Down Bad, Expected Returns, FTX Fraud, Government Oversight, Hacked ($477M), Insolvent, JPEGs, KYC, Liquidity Gone, Margin Trading; I could easily go through the whole alphabet alluding to the current crypto market conditions, but anyone who follows web3 or blockchain technology understands that there is blood in the streets. Well, that is not 100% true across the board. The traders are down and the holders have been defrauded, but what does that mean for those of us here for the digital ART? Honestly, it doesn’t mean all that much unless you are down bad and need to sell. Inherently there is less new money liquidity or as some like to call it—“fake internet money liquidity”—but the truly rich are still rich and the collectors are still collecting. Those with money know that accumulating during a down market is the best time to accumulate.

    Not everything is sunshine and roses and some of the rich have even taken an L this last year in the digital space; Meta (Facebook) loses over $30B on metaverse projects and fires a small city worth of employees (Ouch!), the owner/CEO (SBF) of FTX trading platform and crypto government oversight activist announces that he had “a bad month” in October as he loses over $10B in customer funds prior to stepping down and filing Chapter 11 (Oopsy). To add insult to injury—let’s call it the pixelized cherry on top—current market evaluations say that Justin Bieber’s Bored Ape has lost over 90% of its value this year ($1M+ USD). (Poor Guy).

    These major losses didn’t slow anything down in Miami, where collectors at this year’s Art Basel flexed their digital wealth in a volume of ways. One of my favorites was interacting with a technology-based sculpture by Brooklyn art collective MSCHF. The artwork—essentially a functional ATM located within the Perrotin Booth at the fair—oh so much more than that. The subversive art collective known for celebrity collabs retrofitted this ATM with a digital screen that scrolled through a real-time monetary leaderboard. As each patron stepped up and withdrew from the ATM, their picture was taken, ranking them based on the amount of money left in their wallet. For the opulent at Basel Miami, is was the perfect piece to feed your hubris or provide some hilarious content for social media. If you had $3.1M in the bank and a private jet—one could jaunt down to South Beach and overtake the current leader, Music DJ Diplo, who clocked in at $3M. For those over-invested in crypto—don’t be embarrassed by your account balance, you are probably at home in front of a computer anyway!

    Across the bridge in downtown Miami was the new NFT event for Basel that took over two city blocks and 12 buildings, “The Gateway: A Web3 Metropolis.” Touted as a festival with classic fair-style booths, IRL art installations, NFT speakers and music—massive sponsors such as Christie’s and global galleries to the scale of Pace even grabbed a foothold. Pace Verso (the web3 division of Pace Gallery) showed a mix of artists, in which a fan favorite was Tara Donovan, known for her sprawling sculptural installations built from thousands of standard household goods. QWERTY, Donovan’s first NFT project, used the letters/symbols found on a computer keyboard in much the same way as she would use a stack of buttons in an installation. A repeated character is layered, spaced and patterned in a way that toes the line between legibility and design. In the end the 500-piece collection had the feel of digitally woven tapestries that embodied the thesis behind much of her work, yet pushed into the new realm.

    For those over-invested or simply without generational wealth, just hunker down and wait it out. As Hal Borland said, “No winter lasts forever.” Or even better, as our favorite singer-turned-angry-intellectual writer Henry Rollins said, “In winter, I plot and plan. In spring I move.”

    If you are rich, kindly disregard the above statement and show us that generational wealth. Now is the time to accumulate, buy the digital art and fuel the fire that will keep us warm through the rest of this cold winter. 

  • Superchief’s Super Party The Digital

    Superchief’s Super Party
    The Digital

    After parking on an ominous street, dodging detritus on the sidewalk and being ushered through the door by an equally ominous bouncer—we enter a sprawling fog-filled industrial space just south of DTLA. Loud music plays, neon flashes and the walls are literally covered floor to ceiling with digital can-
    vases     (essentially large televisions). Upon entrance a commotion erupts in the center of the space. The outline of a giant sphere hung from the trusses can be discerned through the mist. Art collectors in dress shirts retract to the edges of the gallery while several younger patrons advance with large sticks and subsequently begin to smash the artwork with a vigor only matched by a Rage Against the Machine mosh pit. Welcome to Superchief; let the party begin.

    Granted this may not be the art gallery to take your mother—if you are in search of adventure, are not a risk-adverse human, and have some inkling toward digital art on the blockchain—LA is home to the world’s first permanent NFT gallery. Before visiting, prepare yourself as you will leave with at minimum a slight buzz, a loud ringing in your ear, possibly a raunchy T-shirt, your first NFT artwork or even a black eye. I wouldn’t suggest wearing your Sunday white’s.

    The gallery has been a longtime staple in the art/party scene in NYC, Miami, LA and after a decade, they still go hard. Don’t get caught off guard, while the gallery may give the vibe of a rocker that has been on the road too many years, its provenance speaks for itself. Artists such as Swoon and epic partnerships with the likes of Christie’s Auction House, Scope Art Fair and OpenSea (the world’s largest NFT marketplace) are impossible to discount. Once again, Scope Art Fair has teamed up with Superchief as its official digital media partner for Miami Basel 2022. If you happen to notice the monumental 60-foot curated digital stage as you enter the fair—that is them. 

    Image courtesy of Superchief Gallery, Los Angeles.

    While Superchief was originally founded in Brooklyn circa 2012 by Edward Zipco and Bill Dunleavy, the focus on the digital began in 2016. The story told by co-founder Zipco may sound like that of many galleries at the beginning—long hours, little pay, nights spent sleeping in the space. As with many superheros’ origin stories, ultimate strength is earned from near-destruction. For the prophetically named “Superchief” this defining moment was in early 2020 when an explosion occurred in the building neighboring its original Los Angeles location. Fire/chaos ensued and while luckily no one in the gallery was injured, the damage to the building lead to the forced closure of this location. 

    Through COVID and a string of unforeseen events, NFTs stole the art world’s attention. The timing couldn’t be better and as if a phoenix rising from the literal ashes, Superchief returned after lockdown with a renewed vigor, an exhibition space of double the size and, as Zipco describes it—“a mission to help artists dream in web3.”

    Don’t think the excitement is over as in almost the next breath he speaks of a recently received compliment. The collector recounted—“I really enjoyed the vibe at the gallery, it was exciting and colorful, but on some level you could just tell it felt dangerous.” 

    For the ultimately authentic Superchief NFT Gallery this is part of the history, their pulse and not something they are willing to give up. Patrons: Just remember to keep your head on a swivel!