Interview with the legend of digital art. Alexander Olshansky.
Today we will introduce you to the legend of digital art Alex Olshansky, artist, poet, winner of many prestigious creative awards, as well as the creator of unique digital collections. Alexander Olshansky was born in 1962 in the city of Snezhinsk, since 1970 he has been living in St. Petersburg. Alex began to create the first digital paintings in the last century, on the first Pentium. Most of the work then exhibited in the form of prints for lack of computers. One of the first works shown on PC at the time was The Dance of Loch Ness… or the Wrinkle in Time. This gif and five more paintings were exhibited on Pentium I during the exhibition of digital art “The Allure of Allegories”, which was successfully held in March 1993 in the exhibition hall of the Writers’ Union (St. Petersburg, Dumskaya, 3). The first fully digital work of the author is already 30 years old, for the same number of years Alexander Olshansky has been a member of the Union of Artists of Russia and the Union of Writers.
In this interview, you will find out what inspires the artist when creating art, how he came to the NFT industry and why he chose the Russian platform to host his digital art.
1. You have been working for decades and have seen several eras. How did the attitude to art change in the Soviet era, in the dashing 90s, in the well-fed 2000s and the current turbulent times? What key moments would you note in each of the eras?
The attitude towards art among a part of the people has not changed over all this time, but the ideological levers and technologies for influencing the consciousness of the broad masses have undergone significant changes.
In my Soviet school years, a block of socialist realism hung over everything, but even in an atmosphere of ideological regulation, some artists found ways to modify the block, introducing a general humanist, almost religious message, as if reminiscent of the painting style of the Russian avant-garde or the Italian Renaissance. Some left, for example, like my older friend and friend of Oleg Okhapkin — Mikhail Shemyakin and others. And some artists in the Union, out of desperation, saddled the underground style of an urban psycho, an eternal drunkard, a cynic and a mocker. This style sold well in the West. This era of non-conformism changed and flourished in the 90s with pluralism with polystylistics, which is generally remarkable. Only gradually in the 2000s did all this begin to resemble a gray-brown-crimson swamp with rare islands, in which every sandpiper praises himself, and if not himself, then for money.
I think that today the old school will come to the rescue again with its best techniques and, most importantly, eternal humanistic ideas… Too much rubbish is accumulating, and now Opensea is turning into a swamp. At the end of the day, technique is just tools, just another handy brush. And it would be nice if they did not become grenades for monkeys.
2. What inspires you while you work?
If we talk about object creativity, then I am concerned about the hidden traits of the subject’s character or the hidden essence of the object, real or only imagined by me. Artistic accuracy for me is a purely intuitive thing, I do not seek to indulge someone’s tastes. And in an abstract image, as in good poetry: the higher the degree of generalization, the more multi-layered emotional and semantic load in combination with the minimalism of creative means, the more people can like it. But even here this does not mean that you need to follow the lead of the public. In the process of work, I never think about how to please someone, how to fit into modern trends. I think about the combination of colors and lighting, the degree of generalization, the variability of the emerging works. Often at first I just close my eyes and try to imagine the future image. I don’t know about others, but for me it’s like writing a poem, when the first line at the end becomes far from the first or even flies out of it. And sometimes the whole poem is crumpled up and thrown into the trash… People shouldn’t waste time on rubbish. These minutes are not enough for someone to do something important in their life! If you sometimes remember this, perhaps the results will be more significant.
3. Now there is a lot of hype around neural networks like Midjourney, which can generate high-quality art. Do you think artists can lose their jobs?
I think aspiring illustrators have something to worry about in the near future. From experienced people of any creative profession, by and large, AI can take away their favorite job … when we all become androids. Brrr! Technological progress offers new tools in the creative process that are used every time and make life easier for yourself, rather in a commercial way. True, intolerance towards a tuning fork, the rudiments of talent, education and experience — far from always manages to even manage the results.
4. How did you first hear about the NFT industry? How did you start working in it?
I kind of learned everything from the network when cryptopunks appeared or a little earlier. The story is not very long. As a veteran of digital art, it used to be difficult for me to confirm the uniqueness of works remotely, it required the face-to-face presence of collectors, personal participation in expositions, and this always takes a lot of time and money.
My first works are NFT portraits of family members of a collector and crypto enthusiast from Miami. Then a few abstractions and off we go. Moreover, transactions were more often carried out through private portals, closed from prying eyes. I think now it is practiced less often, not entirely safe, as it turned out. For example, an artist friend of mine lost everything on his Metamask when he followed a link from a very convincing fake collector. Recently, a tempting offer was also sent to insta direct from a hitherto unknown fan of my work. And, most importantly, an almost perfect link to a clone of the site of a well-known marketplace.
The marketplace itself answered me only a week later that they were scammers. It’s good that he didn’t. Such attempts have happened before, but, however, more… stilted.
5. What NFT marketplaces have you worked with before?
These are well-known sites, my profiles on them:
https://foundation.app/@olshtop
There are still a few of my works left in the first two. The fund was expensive, although it’s nice that I was invited there by several successful artists at once. Collaborated and called hybrid sites that can or are going to use the blockchain:
Fine Art America, Pixels, Galería Azur (Madrid/Berlin/Miami/Buenos Aires), Online Gallery, etc. Previously, I received exclusive offers from the founders of the marketplaces Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, MakersPlace, Quantum Studio, Printspace and others, but I do not work with them yet.. The main reason is the lack of transparency or the impossibility of withdrawing royalties and my disagreement with politicization in art.
6. How did you hear about Barter Smartplace?
I have been looking for a promising domestic NFT platform for about a year and a half, using various sources. This October, I came across a conversation on YouTube with Dmitry Zhukov and contacted him. It was nice to meet like-minded people, your team. Hope we can work successfully in the near future. My large collection of MetaPersons 3.0 and other works are waiting for minting, waiting for their owners, you can find out more in my profile https://vk.com/olshtop or https://linktr.ee/olshtop.
7. What prompted you to work specifically with the Russian NFT trading platform? Why did you leave Western platforms?
Basically, they “leave” us, sometimes rudely and lapidary, sometimes politely and understandingly. Difficulties are no longer with collectors, but with the ability to receive royalties for their work. I am sure that this circumstance will help us quickly develop the art of NFT in our country and soon we will be ahead of the rest in this direction.
8. What functionality would you like to see on the Barter Smartplace site? What can help attract more authors and clients, in your opinion?
Ideally, you can simplify the user path, add variability to the account interface and, of course, strive for integration with social networks.
9. What is the future of the blockchain industry, in your opinion?
Brilliant. Especially if you implement what we discussed in the previous question. Blockchain will soon become familiar to all areas of life, business and creativity, especially in the field of copyright and other rights protection, security.
10. Please give a couple of tips for novice artists from the height of your life experience.
Perhaps the following may harm the guys in advertising, gamedev, but only in part. And you have your own head on your shoulders)
Try to develop observation skills, writing technique, do not chase trends, do not envy anyone and do not imitate, put more meanings, feelings (your own, not invented ones) into your work, and everything will work out. Or not. But spending part of your life doing creative work is a very worthy story. Not beauty will save the world, but people who notice it and know how to give it to others even in the most unexpected forms and places.
Already next week you will get to know the work of Alex Olshansky even closer! There will be a weekly sale of a limited number of digital art from the MetaPersons 3.0 collection on a competitive basis.
MetaPersons 3.0 is a constellation of unique NFT people whose tokens have a high investment attractiveness. Digital art owners will be able to create derivative customized 3D images for social networks and gaming/AR/VR/Metaverse, and will also be able to independently select portrait series in the MetaPersons 3.0 collection: actors, singers, artists. Don’t miss the chance to purchase valuable digital art from this unique collection and take advantage of all the benefits it provides.
One of the buyers from this series of sales will be randomly selected. Perhaps it is for you that the artist will draw a unique digital portrait for an avatar in the metaverse. Participate in this series of sales for real NFT collectors.
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