NFC Lisbon: 5 Artists To Watch At The NFT Event

This Wednesday marks the start of the highly anticipated NFC Lisbon, also known as the Non-Fungible Conference. Building on the success of its previous edition, this event is set to illuminate the world of art once again. The lineup this year is even more prestigious. It features renowned figures in the blockchain art space, including Pak, Claire Silver, and the pioneering French artist Pascal Boyart.

“Art should be at the heart of any NFT project”, John Karp, the organizer of NFC, told NFT Evening. “Companies must understand this artistic movement first before embarking on any project”. 

We selected five artists who will undoubtedly make their mark on this second edition of NFC Lisbon. Let’s discover them!

TL;DR

• Pak, one of the most notable NFT artists, is known for his high-profile works including “The Fungible,” which sold for $16.8 million at Sotheby’s, and “The Merge,” which fetched a record-breaking $91.8 million. He will be one of the main attractions of this year’s NFC Lisbon Event.
• Other notable figures that will be present at the NFC include Trevor Jones, a crypto art pioneer who will participate in the AI Art Hackathon at NFC Lisbon; Claire Silver, who merges AI and traditional art; and Pascal Boyart, a French artist known for merging street art with crypto.
• Generative artist Mgxs is another major figure, known for his project “X Evolutions” and the GNSS project. He will unveil the MEM experience at NFC Lisbon, offering participants a chance to contribute to a living, evolving artwork known as the “Tree of MEM.”

Pak: the NFC Lisbon Headliner

Regarded as one of the most distinguished NFT artists alongside Beeple and XCopy, Pak has been relatively discreet of late. The anonymous artist appears to have taken a step back for nearly a year.

Despite this recent quiet period, Pak’s influence in the NFT art world is undeniable. In April 2021, Pak’s work had already drawn considerable attention during a landmark sale at Sotheby’s. This event, marking a significant milestone in Sotheby’s engagement with NFTs, witnessed the sale of Pak’s collection known as “The Fungible.”

The event raked in $16.8 million and established two records on Nifty Gateway: the highest number of Open Editions sold and the most bids for an auction item.

One another Pak’s significant undertakings was the creation of “The Lost Poets.” This gamified NFT project blended literature and digital art, exploring the possibilities offered by the blockchain in order to involve the community of his collectors.

Pak also launched the “Censored” collection, a collaboration with Julian Assange, the incarcerated founder of Wikileaks. The sale helped raising over $54 million, a sum dedicated to supporting Assange’s legal defense.

Yet, arguably Pak’s most impressive accomplishment to date was the sale of “The Merge,” an NFT series auctioned in December 2021. It has fetched US$91.8 million on Nifty Gateway, with 28,983 collectors snapping up 312,686 NFTs representing units of mass. The price was a record for an artwork sold publicly by a living artist.

Pak’s participation in the NFC could suggest that an announcement might be forthcoming, and why not a new project?

Trevor Jones, a Real OG Artist

Crypto Art pioneer Trevor Jones is poised to make waves at the NFC Lisbon event. As part of the AI Art Hackathon, hosted by MakersPlace this Wednesday, Jones will be collaborating with a team of artists to create unique 1/1 pieces that will be auctioned later in June​​.

Once a traditional painter, Trevor Jones has always been at the intersection of art and technology. His journey began with QR code oil paintings in 2012 and took a deeper dive into AR art a year later. But it was his investment in Bitcoin in 2017 that truly ignited his fascination with the crypto universe.

In 2018, when crypto art was virtually unheard of in traditional art circles, Jones took matters into his own hands. He hired a commercial gallery to stage a crypto-themed exhibition, the Crypto Disruption Exhibition, where he showcased his first original crypto art.

After being introduced to NFTs in 2019, Jones minted his first NFT a few months later. “EthGirl”, a collaboration with NFT art legend Alotta Money, was an instant success, breaking the record for the highest sale on SuperRare.

At NFC Lisbon, he brings his artistic journey and forward-thinking vision to the fore, promising an event as groundbreaking as his art.

Collectors of the NFTs that will be created during the event will give a chance to win physical artworks, as well as an invitation to Jones’ Bitcoin Angels Castle Party. This event brings artists and collectors together for a two-night celebration and will be held in France this coming September.

📣 Set your reminders for our Space about ‘AI Art Hackathon’ at @NFCsummit Lisbon w/ @illustrata_ai, @TheDigitalCoy, @sashastiles, @Coldie, @trevorjonesart, @bl_artcult, @DVKtheartist, @obscuradao, @artmatrco, and @johnkarphttps://t.co/4eCqkNzgX0

— MakersPlace ⚪️⚫️ (@makersplace) May 24, 2023

Claire Silver, Merging AI and Traditional Art

Claire Silver uses AI as tool to explore the human creativity. “I collaborate with AI to produce art that is transcendental- art that evokes in the viewer a wordless truth”, she says on her website. “Together, we create works that are greater than either of us could make alone, neither more important than the other to the process”.

Silver’s work seamlessly merges the physical and digital domains. In addition to her AI-driven pieces, she also produces hand-painted versions of select digital artworks. By doing that, she blurs even more the boundaries between the tangible and virtual worlds.

Silver employs a wide array of tools, including oil, acrylic, GAN (Artbreeder), Procreate, collage, and photography. She infuses her art with classical style and mythos and trains the GAN on a traditional painting style.

At the NFC Lisbon event, Silver is set to give an AI talk alongside Dadagan, the neo-dadaist AI Artist bot, on the main stage. She intends to delve into the relationship of AI art with other artistic fields like literature and introduce her new body of work, “artifacts”.

This new collection poses thought-provoking questions about the changing perceptions of ourselves and society as AI continues to augment our skills and work. It also explores how we will navigate the complex terrain of an increasingly transhumanist future.

Pascal Boyart, from Street Art to Crypto Art

Another pioneer of the Crypto Art movement, French artist Pascal Boyart has been challenging the boundaries of traditional art since 2018. One of the first to intertwine street art with crypto, Boyart ingeniously incorporated a QR code into one of his murals. This allowed onlookers to interact with his art by offering Bitcoin donations directly to the artist.

His art also builds bridges between past and present, between the struggles of historical artists and those of modern creators. His mural ‘Rembrandt dos au mur,’ a piece located on Rue Riquet in Paris, is a good illustration of this.

The mural depicts Dutch Golden Age master Rembrandt van Rijn as he struggles with a large tax bill. This reflected Boyart’s own journey in the art world and a commentary on the financial challenges artists continue to face today.

In 2021, Boyart undertook an ambitious project: “The Underground Sistine Chapel”. This modern reinterpretation of the iconic Sistine Chapel is located in a former gold foundry on the outskirts of Paris.

Completed over five months during the 2020 quarantine, the project culminated in the release of Non-Fungible NFTs of the work, highlighting Boyart’s commitment to exploring the potential of blockchain technology in art.

In Lisbon, Pascal Boyart will reflect on his journey and share the experience he gained doing it. Titled “Pioneering Street Art NFTs: pushing the Limits,” this session is an opportunity to learn from one of the pioneers of the Crypto Art movement.

Mgxs: an Interactive Experience in NFC Lisbon

Renowned generative artist Mgxs has quickly carved out a significant reputation in the NFT Art World. His portfolio showcases a number of remarkable collaborations, with a standout project being the “X Evolutions” sneaker. This unique piece was born from his collaboration with RTFKT.

The most recent feather in Mgsx’s cap is the GNSS project. This venture showcases his enduring exploration into the aesthetic dimension of machines. GNSS mirrors Mgxs’ fascination with the harmonious co-existence of technology and artistry. The artist describes it as an attempt to “replicate nature, but from a different timeline.”

For those interested in owning a piece of this innovative project, GNSS offers seeds for purchase on their website at 0.33 ETH each. Buying a seed grants the right to mint a new digital being. 

At NFC Lisbon, Mgxs will unveil the MEM experience. It will invite participants to mold the memories of GNSS beings. These contributions will become ingrained in a living, evolving artwork known as the “Tree of MEM.”

The MEM experience is a novel opportunity for community engagement at the intersection of art and technology. Whether you’re present at NFC Lisbon or joining in from afar, you can participate in this experience until June 9th.

MEM by @mgxs_co: https://t.co/stLtFMYuxf

Learn more about how you can create Machine-Embedded Memories (MEMs) for GNSS beings in real-time. The opportunity starts June 7th at 9am GMT/5am ET, and it will be available both online and in-person at @NFCsummit Lisbon. pic.twitter.com/x7X8NLTfND

— GNSS – GENERATIVE NATURE SYNTHETIC SPECIES (@mgxs_gnss) June 5, 2023