Art on Tezos: 2024 Miami Art Week

Art Basel Miami Beach is an important date in the arts calendar and a place for global influence. This year, Tezos further solidified its reputation as the blockchain of choice for digital art and creative expression. From immersive installations to high-profile collaborations, art on Tezos could be found throughout Miami from December 3 – 8.

To help facilitate this multi-venue artistic takeover, the Art team at Trilitech—a London-based adoption hub of the Tezos ecosystem—worked alongside a range of partners to create opportunities for artists in the Tezos ecosystem.

Here’s a roundup of all the highlights from Miami.

A one-day digital extravaganza: Miami Digital Art Fair #

On December 3, art on Tezos was exhibited at the Miami Digital Art Fair, a digital art experience presented by Blackdove.

The day featured a range of events and curations, including:

• A laCollection x objkt presentation of Martin Lukas Ostachowski, exploring a critical vision of art, currency, and their meaning for our society in the digital age.

Works by Martin Lukas Ostachowski: Cloud Wallet series (left), From Grassroots to Tie Loots (right)

• EVE: The Power of Growth & Resistance: An exhibition featuring Violet Bond, Victoria West, and Andressa Furletti.

Victoria West in front of works by Violet Bond

Andressa Furletti in front of works by Victoria West and Andressa Furletti

Violet Bond in front of her works

• Apotheosis: A selection of works by 11 artists curated by Nilus Dantes from an open call by SHILLR’s.

During the day, a series of panel discussions took place, bringing together artists and curators to discuss the latest projects from across the Web3 art ecosystem.

Left to right: gmoney, Pablo Rodriguez Fraile, Aleksandra Art, Roger Dickerman

To kick things off, Aleksandra Art, Head of Arts at Trilitech, shared her thoughts about the next trends in collecting during “Collecting the Future” alongside Pablo Rodriguez Fraile and gmoney in a panel moderated by Roger Dickerman.

Left to right: Justin Gilanyi, Aleksandra Art, Georg Back, Adrian Wilson

Aleksandra also spoke with Georg Bak and Adrian Wilson about the launch of the Paintedboxed Tezos World Tour in a conversation moderated by Justin Gilanyi.

Left to right: Chris Cummings, Whitney Hart, Vinciane Jones, Elena Zavelev

Later, Trilitech Art Partner Manager Vinciane Jones took part in the panel “Integrating Digital Art into Institutions" where she spoke about Tezos-based projects in museums and across Web3, together with Chris Cummings and Whitney Hart, moderated by Elena Zavelev.

Kaleidoscope (…Bigger) House at Dminti x ICA Miami #

Open from December 3, the Kaleidoscope (…Bigger) House, a new, life-size doll house installation by Laurie Simmons and Peter Wheelwright, captivated audiences. This multisensory experience explores ideas of home, domesticity and identity, and is accompanied by a collectible mintable exclusively on Tezos. The installation is open until March 31, 2025.

From December 3 – 8, presented alongside the physical installation, were new works by renowned artists Carla Gannis, Ana María Caballero, SamJ, Frank Lepkowski, Moises Sanabria, and Fabiola Larios, reflecting themes of identity, space, and belonging. Their works were released via objkt.one’s gallery.

Laurie Simmons and Peter Wheelwright, The Kaleidoscope (…Bigger) House, 2024

Paintboxed Tezos World Tour at Fake Basel #

Paintboxed — Tezos World Tour, an exciting addition to the Tezos ecosystem, made waves from December 5 – 7 at Fake Basel. Artists were given the opportunity to try out one of the few remaining Quantel Paintboxes—an innovative digital painting tool from the early 80s, predating Adobe Photoshop by almost a decade. Throughout the coming months, Paintboxed will tour cities around the world, inviting selected artists to create new works, culminating in a show at the Digital Art Mile Basel 2025.

Quantel Paintbox

Following its 1981 release, major broadcasters like ABC, NBC, and the BBC adopted the Paintbox despite its hefty $250,000 price tag, equivalent to approximately $868,000 today.

Its impact on popular culture extends into the music world, with some of the most iconic album covers of all time being produced using the technology:

Even Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine, joined the fun, underscoring the project’s appeal among art world luminaries.

The Tezpepe x Paintboxed launch party on December 6 was a resounding success, bringing together a vibrant community of creators and collectors.

Tezpepe: Blockchain meets cultural phenomenon #

Tezpepe, a collection of Pepe-inspired artworks, took Fake Basel by storm with stunning projections facilitated by Vandalo and robust market performance. It brought together legendary Pepe creators such as Rare Scrilla, Mr Hansel and Zed along with Tezos-native stars such as Zancan, Xer0x, Salawaki and many others. The project achieved a primary sales volume of 25,970 tez and 3,020 tez in secondary sales.

Self-portrait MiaMyth by TheMyth

One of the standout moments was the Zancan x Aleksandra Art 1/1 piece, which ignited a bidding war and was finally acquired by Vincent Van Dough for 4,720 tez. Explore the full Tezpepe series here.

Hic Et Pepe by batz

Superchief x Scope Art Show #

Members of the Tezos art community joined forces with Superchief at the Scope Art Fair, delivering an extraordinary display of curated digital art. Superchief selected 30 artists to showcase their work through an open call on X, culminating in an attention-grabbing display on a 65-ft main stage screen.

Left to right: Sabato, Violet Bond, Aleksandra Art, Ed Zipco

The event also featured a thought-provoking panel discussion with Ed Zipco of Superchief, Aleksandra Art of Trilitech, and artists Violet Bond and Sabato, exploring the evolving landscape of art on Tezos.

Reflections on Tezos projects during Miami Art Week 2024 #

This year’s Miami Art Week marked a new milestone for the Tezos ecosystem, showcasing its most ambitious and diverse programming to date. The scope of events, community engagement, and the excitement that Tezos-based projects received throughout the event symbolize art on Tezos gaining further maturity.

Tezos adoption hubs like Trilitech work tirelessly to help find new ways to expand the reach of Web3 art and act as lightning rods to bring together creatives in the Tezos ecosystem at cornerstone art events such as Miami Art Week.

“This year we’ve been fortunate to partner up with brilliant teams to help us bring art on Tezos to Miami—I’m grateful to all the artists and our Trilitech colleagues working together in making it a success! Kek.” -Aleksandra Art

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“It was a joy to work with so many artists on such a wide range of projects. The strengths of the Tezos art ecosystem lie not only in its wonderful community but also in the breadth of artists and art projects being developed; from meme-based artworks and collectibles, to museum commissions. This year’s Miami Art Week was a celebration of all that diversity and talent.” -Vinciane Jones

As digital and physical art continues to converge, the Tezos art community is helping to lead the way, empowering artists to take ownership of their work. Miami Art Week 2024 acted as a powerful showcase for this movement.

Discover more groundbreaking projects, inspiring stories, and the future of art on blockchain at the Tezos Art Portal.