VESA goes Ordinals
It Used To Be Wired
Crypto Art Collection
Very few early VESA works from the 2017-2019 period on the Bitcoin movement are minted as digital originals despite him being in this space full time for nearly 7 years now. It Used To Be Wired is a tribute to the likes of Nick Spanos, who pioneered the early NY crypto scene, and had to eventually leave the land of the free not being so free after all. The work is made via painting, photography and digital collaging over multiple days.
In this art piece the iconic NY island skyline is transformed by blockchain code, but this time Philippe Petit is not walking in between the WTC buildings as the man on a wire. He is walking from the Freedom Tower to the digital unknown. There are many blockchain ventures in the city, but many are moving out of NY and the United States due to a lack of entrepreneurial support. The question remains: "Will New York keep its pioneering spirit or drive out the future of finance?"
When conceptualising this piece in 2018 VESA first thought about the lasting frontier spirit of New York, the artists who have lived there and pioneering moves in Bitcoin really starting from a humble transatlantic pizza transaction. No matter what you think about 9/11 a part of its ghost is inescapably linked to the 2008 financial meltdown and the birth of digital currency. Knowing what we know now, most people in crypto try to avoid doing any business in the US, as it is among the most restrictive countries in the world to be involved with.
If the reserve price is met + 3000 usd worth of BTC, it will come with a signed print
If the reserve price is met with +6000 usd worth of BTC on top, it will include an animation of the same work, so the print works with AR.
If the reserve price is met with 12K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well a News BTC article regarding the auction and the collector of the artwork.
If the reserve price is met with 30K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well as the right to make a street legal art car from the work in Dubai and some other select places.
Other things negotiated privately with the representatives of the artist.
Million Dirham Hotel
Mirrors Collection
Million Dirham Hotel is the first Mirrors-series artwork minted on Ordinals. Some of the earlier versions have been implemented on physical art cars, for which we have a exclusive licence to launch these cars on the streets of Dubai. This artwork, if it reaches a certain sum, will carry that same IP right, which we can implement on selected surfaces or objects. The work is made via painting, photography and digital collaging over multiple days.
The topic of the artwork itself? Can you imagine what a hotel that charges a million dirhams per night looks like? During the last three years of living in Dubai, VESA has observed the attention, luxury and experience economy grow. The class of people who made rather than lost money during Covid or any other recent disaster live a completely different lifestyle to the majority on the planet. The new luxury is a unique experience, unavailable to most. The world is moving from an ownership to access basis even further. A LV bag don’t impress people much. VESA’s new Mirrors-series explores value, experiences and identity in an innovative way. The leveraged IP of the artwork provides another layer to the work’s value argument. How does the art become something that is our unique identity, rather than a common access commodity?
If the reserve price is met + 3000 usd worth of BTC, it will come with a signed print
If the reserve price is met with +6000 usd worth of BTC on top, it will include an animation of the same work, making the print activate with AR.
If the reserve price is met with 12K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well a News BTC article regarding the auction and the collector of the artwork.
If the reserve price is met with 30K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well as the right to make a street legal art car from the work in Dubai and in some other select places.
Further access negotiated privately with the representatives of the artist.
Rune Dreams
Senses Artisan Collection
Rune Dreams by VESA, a crypto artist since 2017, introduces his work to Ordinals. The piece is a tribute to the Runestones project and is an example of the kind of mutually beneficial cross overs fine art and Web3 projects can have. The work is made via painting, photography and digital collaging over multiple days.
The piece was produced via digitally collaging photography of a model shot in VESA's studio, and scanned images of his layer paintings for the Senses series, which has been previously minted on Superrare and Crypto (dot) com. This series II, has now just shot 16 models and will start to drop the evolution of the series on Ordinals.
The artist has been exhibited in museums, high level galleries, top crypto events and won several awards. His work has previously reached hundreds of millions of people (Veena Malik Project), and he is currently working with Brittany Kaiser from The Great Hack Netflix documentary on an NFT art project. VESA’s original Bitcoin and decentralisation themed works from 2017-19 will also soon become available on BTC.
If the reserve price is met + 3000 usd worth of BTC, you will receive a signed print
If the reserve price is met with +6000 usd worth of BTC, it will include an animation minted on ETH so the print works with AR.
If the reserve price is met with 12K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well as a News BTC article regarding the auction and the collector of the artwork.
The Invitation
Senses AI Collection
The Invitation is the first minted AI artwork by VESA. We trained a custom AI algorithm with Anttu on 10.000 photographs of VESA’s model shoots, as well as 10.000 images of his layer paintings and the Senses series style. Only the best of the generative effort is included in the series, aiming for an initial release of only 100 works.
This work is called the invitation, as it invites the collector to go deeper into what the image really means. You will first see an attractive woman laying on a cosmic bed of art, underneath which a new realm seems to open. This is not a real woman of course, but even in the real-world beauty can be trapping. None of us really know what we are doing with AI yet, and we don’t fully see its potential existential hazards. In contrast to the very human artisan line, do you feel like this manages to capture something similar? Or is it vastly different?
If the reserve price is met + 3000 usd worth of BTC, the work will come with a signed print
If the reserve price is met with +6000 usd worth of BTC on top, it will include an animation of the same work, so the print works with AR.
If the reserve price is met with 12K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well a News BTC article regarding the auction and the collector of the artwork.
Bridge Over Reason
Artevo Collection
VESA transitioned from a filmmaker to a contemporary artist with his own style, when he discovered that through bodypainting, painting, photography and digital collaging he could express something unique in 2008. The process resulted in digital originals, which prompted him to enter the crypto art and NFT scene early. He needed the technology 10 years before it became available. The work is made via painting, photography and digital collaging over multiple days.
Bridge Over Reason is a work from his early sessions with Sepi, the second ever model to work with VESA. The work was made in 2008 but first was seen in public in the artist’s first ever gallery show in June 2009. Very few of these works have been minted on any chains, as they hold a certain legacy space for VESA. Now finally, through ordinals, they will become available.
If the reserve price is met + 3000 usd worth of BTC, the work will come with a signed print
If the reserve price is met with +6000 usd worth of BTC on top, it will include an animation of the same work, so the print works with AR.
If the reserve price is met with 12K usd worth of BTC on top, the deal will include the above, as well a News BTC article regarding the auction and the collector of the artwork.