UNDRGRND DIGS 022
APRIL 25TH, 2022
5 Artists From the UNDRGRND Collection
UNDRGRND DIGS is a periodical feature showcasing artists that the UNDRGRND curators dig. We sift through social media and NFT platforms to find the best artists waiting to be discovered. UNDRGRND believes in the artists we feature and we will purchase NFTs from each artist featured. Purchases will be airdropped to reward UNDRGRND community members.
It's hard to look at Sümeyra's drops and not see something major brewing. Many collectors had the same lightbulb moment at pretty much the same time. The works that made her name, the Room series, are loaded with the charm, depth, boldness and clarity of identity that define her art: the discord between the familiar, comfortable domestic settings set against equally bizarre details. As we move into web3, I can't help but think that a second career as a metaverse interior designer awaits. Her scenes are that inviting. The curious part is that many of these works arguably predate the current wave of surrealist painted NFTs, yet they sit so comfortably alongside them. She switches between densely intricate tableaus that deconstruct the comfort of the familiar and right back to minimal surrealist character pieces laced with spiritual symbolism. Imagine if DotPigeon and The Myth all got smoothed into the same brain as David Hockney and David Lynch, and you'd be halfway there. It's working for her, as giants like SuperRare and World Of Women have embraced her. It's not too late for you to join them.
Great art transports you from the everyday, triggers empathy and wonder while creating an amplified version of the artist's truth. Shaped by the brutal surroundings of Brazil's favelas, Artedeft communicates his world with forceful grace. His pieces don't shy away from that harsh reality but rather give nobility to its inhabitants. He recasts the humble characters in his paintings as religious icons, draped in hip-hop trappings, bursting with vibrant colours within incredibly composed scenes. Art offers a way for Artedeft to rise up and bring others from his world with him. For that alone, no one should deny him the success he deserves.
Bottom line: a lot of the time, we rationalise the jpegs we buy to ourselves, knowing that if we had to explain them to a friend, the logic would probably fall apart pretty rapidly – the 10th generation Xcopy copy or the generative piece that could feasibly have been a Windows 95 screensaver. But with Julie Rose’s colourful, gloriously composed abstracts, there’s usually an honest internal response to a straightforward aesthetic: layering digital and analogue methods, drawing from old-school sci-fi art and using a solid and cohesive colour pallet that creates a clear sense of harmony within a tight composition structure packed with fluid rhythms all sidesteps your conscious thought process to provide a serene, spacious, other-worldly construct that burrows down multiple layers of your mind.
The whole debate around GAN-based art will probably take the longest to settle and sets an NFT record for the most pearl-clutching. Anyone who trawls for new art grows accustomed to seeing that particular quick-fix GAN style, as if the artist has forcibly pancaked a picture against a brick wall, hoping that some cubist perspective fuckery will be enough. But, a core problem that needs addressing is the space between the human and the inhuman sentiment and whether a satisfying harmony can be found between the two. This is the domain that BlomBlom inhabits and flourishing within. By documenting moments of his everyday life and then applying GAN methods to short video loops, he’s reversing the direction of travel by bringing AI into the world rather than excommunicating reality to explore an uncharted region. With BlomBlom, the use of GAN results in an expansive, melted, wonky version of the world - that is still as human as it can be - thanks to his wit, eye for magic realism and musical compositions (he’s also a piano composer on top of being an artist). If ever you wanted a low-maintenance window into how your regular life would look through the dizzying gauze of psychedelics, here’s your chance to get a glimpse.
Bapakvampir
When I first stumbled upon Bapakvampir, it felt like I had stumbled upon some ancient cursed artifact in a dusty, long-hidden tomb. These tapestry-like illustrations feel like ominous warnings from some unknown tribe, full of visions of ritual sacrifice, a natural world full of menace and coded warnings to outsiders. But, they look amazing and are unlike anything else you’ll see: these are stunning works of colourful energy, maximising impact from simple, clean shapes. Buying one may open a portal that unleashes dark forces, but that’s a risk worth taking.