The Avant-Garde and NFTs: 5 Artists to Watch

A few months ago, I wrote about the “Rise of Avant-Garde NFTs,” an experimental subsect of art-focused NFT collections with devoutly loyal followings.

The focus was on collections, though. Revisiting this category now, it's clear there are also a growing number of forward-looking solo artists, particularly those using AI, who are employing NFTs as either a means of distribution or as a method for merging their digital works with physical counterparts. 

That said, below are five artists leading the charge in this arena, displaying how blockchains can be used to create and connect experiences online and offline.

1) Niceaunties

Singaporean designer and AI artist Niceaunties draws the matriarchal environment of her early life to depict the vibrant, multifaceted world of "auntie culture."

Born in the 1980s during Singapore’s formative nation-building years, she grew up with her grandparents, aunties, and uncles while her parents worked, exposing her to their lives of foot-binding, transitioning from lives of kitchen duties to being bedridden, and countless personalities from mother and eleven aunties.

These women act as the backbone for Niceaunties’ work, in which she explores themes of aging, beauty, personal freedom, and the nuances of everyday life through generative and digital work, such as those produced with NFT platform, Fellowship AI.

2) Parker Ito

Contemporary artist Parker Ito makes work heavily influenced by life online, often blending both digital and physical mediums with materials such as reflective 3M Scotch-lite fabric and automotive paint to display the complexity of this digital influence. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, such as the contemporary gallery Lubov NYC and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Ito’s beginning to venture into blockchains, launching a collection through Zien on August 22nd of 10K PFP-styled NFTs, which can be redeemed for an oil-on-canvas painting, available in a range of sizes. The central figure in these works will be the “Parked Domain Girl,” a viral stock photo of a girl with a backpack used as a placeholder on many inactive websites, who’s played a prominent role in Ito’s work since 2010. 

3) Jared Madere

Multidisciplinary artist and cofounder of Galerie Yeche Lange, Jared Madere brings a background in tradart, particularly with massive, collaborative installations, to his work with NFTs. These installations employed a range of mediums and materials, such as calf blood and sleeping bags, earning him shows in venues such as the Whitney Museum of Art.

Having always made digital art, Madere has begun making NFTs over the past few years, drawn by their ability to distribute more pieces in one project than most artists can fathom making in a lifetime. Madere builds and trains his own AI models to produce intricate, multi-dimensional visuals like his recent project, Tents, a collection with artist Pauly Stone Jiva of 3333 AI-generated anthropomorphic tents synthesizing demonic and cherubic imagery into tent architectures ranging from backyard to Bedouin. 

4) Wretched Worm

Another cofounder of Yeche Lange, artist Wretched Worm also works across both physical and digital, crafting digital imagery that imparts a tangible sense of touch to push digital art beyond just attempts of realism, whether through synthesized wood carving or semi-gelatinous surfaces, among others. Some works of his that stand out to me are “the way you make me feel is the best part of my life” and the characters in “Wanderlust Girls.” Worm is also a writer, whose pieces chronicle and explain the dynamics of networked experiences, on and offline.

5) Henry Sprite

Henry Sprite, also known as Sprite Bonkler, is a semi-pseudonymous artist who was one of the original creators of Milady Maker. His work often draws on systems and databases, merging Western and Japanese aesthetics with a particular love for Otaku culture, those who love anime and manga.

Sprite’s recently shifted towards painting and physical works, though augmenting them with NFTs, such as through his recent project, Sentimental Graffiti. Launched through Zien, Sentimental Graffiti could be redeemed for a painting or book, the former of which came with oak table legs for converting it into a table.