UNDRGRND DIGS 061
FEBRUARY 28TH, 2023
5 Artists From the UNDRGRND Collection
UNDRGRND DIGS is a periodical feature showcasing artists that the UNDRGRND curators dig. We sift through the 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.
The chain symbol appearing next to the artist’s name indicates which UNDRGRND collection.
Emirhan Serveren ꜩ ◎
Turkish artist Emirhan Serveren blends dark humor with the innocence of comic art to deal with harsh realities. His work still waiting to be retired depicts the growing concern for employees with a skeleton well past their date of expiration, still clicking away on a computer in the name of capitalism. Despite the surreal nature of Emirhan’s art, each work has relatable human elements, as in aware of nothin’ while chatting with her. Anyone who has experienced the thrilling rush of speaking with a new potential partner can relate to ignoring everything surrounding you while talking to someone you think may become someone special. Emirhan also manages to answer, quite brilliantly, where the devil’s obsession with fire stems from in childhood idol.
Watching an artist develop in real-time is a thrilling experience. When they began minting Indonesian artist Simboliatt defined their style in a set of three colors in digital drawings. This expanded to their collage work using a similar color scheme but utilizing more clean-cut lines and digital artifacts. Perhaps unintentionally, Simboliatt captures this constant transition in their work Aspro despite it not dealing with this subject matter. We can still see glimpses of the past shining through Simboliatt’s most recent work but utilized with a completely new, grittier style. Works like Pragma show little resemblance to the artist’s past work but still maintain key elements throughout that a true fan will identify immediately. Using an almost manic sketching style and combining it with the written word Simboliatt is beginning to create their most exciting work yet.
Art, and comics, seem to be a spiritual experience for Indonesian artist Rendra Prasetya. Rendra work combines styles from the past with the present, always revolving around a whimsical, imaginative world. We see this all play out in his work Honour The Old Comics, where one of Rendra’s “Guardians of Direction” visits a temple paying respects to comics and cartoons from the past. All of which have influenced Rendra’s beautiful work. Just as cave paintings preserved stories for future generations, Rendra captures this current moment with blockchain technology preserved for future generations to appreciate.
A predominantly portrait artist, Artsiom Pronin illustrates beautifully-grotesque individuals with a constant variance in his unique style. Artsiom wastes no effort, making sure to capture the fullest potential of each stroke. In some portraits a line may begin in the character's hair, take a path around the eyes, down the nose and finish by outlining the lips. Committed to this efficiency Artsiom uses negative space to also outline these individuals’ very distinct facial features.
Ma.Jarat ꜩ
You do not need to understand the artist’s intent to appreciate their talent. A full in-depth conversation with Ma.Jarat would be needed to fully grasp what is going on in the surreal world of the series ME-FLAVORED MILK. Each piece features the female form in some capacity, who “drank so much” of the flavored milk, as strange cows with wings, without heads, or misshaped bodies. Beautiful, creative, and mysterious, we can only hope that this series continues.
