Tezos Commons :: Spotlighting Tezos Art In NYC With STELLAR
April 18, 2024Highlighting the STELLAR art event hosted by Victoria West on April 2nd, 2024, in NYC.
The STELLAR exhibition hosted at LUME Studios, an event venue in New York City, brought over 500 artists and enthusiasts to witness an immersive art experience. This was the second consecutive year that Victoria West organized a world-class art event in NYC, powered by Tezos, and it did not disappoint.
The event had an engaging panel discussion with artists and collectors, live performances, and was full of amazing art from talented artists minting on Tezos. It was another testament to all of the talented artists that can be found in the Tezos community.
Highlighted Works
The exhibition included digital art from over 60 artists such as Vendingnfts, OMGiDRAWEDit, Wondermundo, and more.
According to Victoria West, the crowd at the event was quite diverse. She stated that during the event:
At one point, I saw one of the bouncers that work for the venue was over at the tez vending machine with Flexasaurus Rex getting onboarded to Tezos. I think we definitely had some impact outside of our little space.
A notable artist who has minted many works on Tezos, OMGiDRAWEDit, had one of their latest art piece displayed at the event. Beyond the popular Tezzardz PFP collection and Bedroom Nostalgia series, George showcased a similar appeal to his unique style.
There was also some impressive artistic poetry displayed from collectives like TheVERSEverse, including threads that were curated by OBJKT for the event. Check out those threads to see more fantastic works showcased at the STELLAR exhibition.
Panel Discussion
This day-long immersive experience wasn’t only about showcasing art. It was also a deep dive into how web3 reshapes lives, especially for artists.
Aaron Vick steered a compelling panel discussion featuring voices from the Tezos community, including Jen Panepinto (QuantumSpirit), Empress Trash, Leslie Spurlock, Joanne Enders (itsltlthings), and Sunny Sangwan, which also contained a Q&A from attendees. As art from the Tezos community lit up the walls, the conversation veered into the transformative power of web3.
Panelists shared a unified belief: web3 isn’t just changing the game; it’s redefining it. Tezos has emerged as a user-friendly and affordable platform that allows artists worldwide to share their work with the world while breaking traditional barriers to entry. This democratization of art promotes inclusivity, enabling non-traditional artists, poets, and photographers to connect with new collectors and audiences.
Yet, for all its advancements, the panel acknowledged that web3’s journey is far from complete. The goal is to make navigating the blockchain as straightforward as surfing the current web. While there’s concern that web3 could be dismissed as a fringe movement, the panel remained optimistic. The continuous march towards a digital expanse suggests a different outcome.
The overriding hope is that creators alike will see web3 not just as a means to make a living, but as a platform to build communities and forge lasting friendships. STELLAR’s panel underscored a pivotal moment in the art world, where technology and human connection intersect, promising a vibrant, inclusive future.
Live Performances
Attendees were also treated to a performance by Graphite Method, a collaboration between actor and artist Laurence Fuller and actor and poet Vincent D’Onofrio. The duo recited poetry during the event while projections enveloped the studio, creating a visually immersive experience.
Fuller and D’Onofrio’s collaboration, Graphite Method, features poetry that resembles a graphic novel or noir thriller, with recurring characters such as Sheldon, a boy, and Lady Bushwick, an aging woman. These characters appear in a series of poems linked by a plot called “Sparrow.” Their performance included additional poems that contributed to the depth and texture of the show.
I contacted Laurence about how the two famous actors got together and made the collaboration happen and this is what he had to say…
Vincent D’Onofrio and actors like Daniel Day-Lewis and Philip Seymour Hoffman have inspired me since my youth. He is known amongst cinema lovers as one of the truest actors of our time. His capacity to transform into different characters and commit to artistic choices with boldness and wild determination has been a compelling and poetic statement that’s rare in the field. Actors like Vincent came to redefine the craft, and he participated at The Lee Strasberg Institute and other such studios.Working with Vincent D’Onofrio has been a long time in the making. I initially connected with him on Twitter 4–5 years ago, posting about his acting, back when my followers were 100% from the film and art worlds. And he responded. At one point, he posted about one of my first pieces, ‘Garden Of Barnacles,’ originally minted on Opensea, and I wrote to him asking for a collaboration.I onboarded Vincent to Tezos for the Poetics exhibition I put together in 2022 ~ our first collab was with my friends Henrik Uldalen and Ruben Fro called ‘Flood Of The Soul.’ We worked with FakeWhale on “Reflections Of Ours” about six months later and cross-platforms SuperRare and MakersPlace afterward.Sparrow came about after the Fable exhibition on SuperRare in NYC last year ~ Sutu approached me with the idea to do a cube, and I’d just met with Vincent about some potential projects we could do. We thought a noir thriller could be a great fit, what started a one year in the making, developing the visuals in tune with the ever-evolving AI tech as well as very personal cinematics. Many of the scenes were built from footage I’d shot around my neighborhood in LA, and the characters were composed of scans of Vincent and me and people in his life.During the making of it, SPARROW toured NFC Lisbon, Film3 Summit in LA, and most recently, Lume Studios immersive space during NFT NYC.
Not to be left out of the limelight, Andressa Furletti also did an excellent live performance. “Washed Dreams,” created by Andressa, is a multimedia performance that combines video art with live performance, improvisation, and AI technology. It explores renewal, identity, transformation, and self-discovery through a poetic and physically expressive narrative.
I’d like to thank Lauren McDonagh-Pereira for providing the photo above and all the others.
Final Thoughts
It’s safe to say the STELLAR event was a success, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of over 500 artists and fans to witness Tezos-based art, live cinematic poetry readings, and a fascinating panel discussion from artists. The event’s host, Victoria West, certainly surpassed her event from last year with another remarkable showing. This immersive art experience showcased digital works from over 60 artists deeply embedded in the Tezos community, demonstrating the strength of the Tezos art community and the Tezos blockchain that powers them. We at Tezos Commons are proud to support this event, are in awe of how talented the Tezos artistic community is, and cannot wait to see the collaborations that are born out of this event!
Spotlighting Tezos Art In NYC With STELLAR was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
