VCA Weekly Roundup — Friday, January 7th 2022
by Harry Martin
Welcome to the VerticalCrypto Art Weekly Roundup! 💗 Your weekly summary and source of truth for all things blockchain art. 🤖
For those who are joining us for the first time — greetings! It’s great to have you here. If you are wondering about the who, what and why behind VerticalCrypto Art, look no further than our weekly roundup. We provide a comprehensive recap of everything within our Crypto Art community, every Friday.
For those of you who are seasoned VCA fanatics, it has been quite the Vertical week! Plenty of events are in the works, with numerous panels, articles and NFTs being created.
So, What Happened This Week? 🤔
Wow, we haven’t seen you since last year! 😂 That was a terrible joke, sorry. Memes aside, the team at VCA recently compiled a list of our best moments from 2021 — there are many of them! In case you missed it, that link is here.
On Monday, we hosted our first Guest Curator Corner with the excellent Professor Jun discussing the work of crypto artist Luis Ponce. Read the fascinating article here! 🎨
VerticalCrypto Art is now using Mirror — a web3 native platform for publications, articles and more. This is a new year’s resolution and another step in further decentralising our ecosystem, Curatorial Picks will now be available as NFTs on our Mirror profile. Check out and maybe collect an edition of our first article NFT here. 🪞
We are nearing the final stages of producing the second cohort’s VerticalCrypto Art residency auction, taking place on Wednesday, January 19th in Arium Spaces. Be sure to earmark the date — it’s going to be incredible! 📆
Applications for the VerticalCrypto Art Residency 2022 are now closed. Mentors are currently voting on the next cohort of the residency: Cohort III. The deadline for mentors’ decisions is Saturday, January 15th. How exciting — let’s see what they decide! 🗳
Happy #genuary2022! In celebration of all things generative, this week’s Curatorial Pick highlights four machine-led artists from within the VerticalCrypto Art ecosystem. Read up on that GAN-goodness here. 🎉
Hot from the press: Whitewall x VerticalCrypto Art’s Top 2021 NFT Drops
Marking the end of what has been called ‘the year of Crypto Art’, Whitewall recently asked leaders of the Crypto Art community to reflect on their favorite NFT drops from last year.
As an NFT leader herself, Micol was invited to share a selection of her favorite projects. This included a wide range of generative works, community pieces and entries from early innovators in the Web3/blockchain ecosystem.
Featured artists from Micol’s collection include Dmitri Cherniak (‘Ringers’), FEWOCIOUS x RTFKT Studios (‘FEWO WORLD’), 0xDEAFBEEF (‘Synth Poems’), Rhea Meyers (‘Secret Artwork’), Sarah Friend (‘Lifeforms’) and Botto (‘October’).
With a vast knowledge of her favorite drops, Micol explains the various contexts of notable artists and their NFT projects.
Read the full article here to learn more!
VerticalCrypto Art’s Cohort II: Weekly Roundup 🗣
Anticipating the launch of the second cohort’s VerticalCrypto Art Residency Auction in less than a fortnight(!), residents are adding final touches to artworks (no spoilers! 😉). Their deadline is next Friday, January 14th 2022. Good luck, residents!
Seemingly doing everything at once, resident and metaversal architect Mical Noelson is currently building the auction venue in Arium Spaces, with VCA team member Lisa Kolb leading the metaverse production.
Despite how busy Mical has been in between tasks, he has found time to mint a new 1/1 artwork! More information on this below. 👇
Cohort Creations 🖼️
Starting 2022 with their best feet forward, Cohort II presents glimpses of new work in the lead up to the VCA Residency Auction. Some residents show WIPs, whilst others present 1/1 artworks. Here are some honorable mentions!
‘Portrait of a mute smeared over yellow bricks’ is a new, 1/1 artwork by Mical Noelson available on Lovada: a sustainable NFT creative community.
Forming a third of Mical’s cross-chain, AR triptych on Cardano, Polygon and Tezos blockchains, this bust completes his interactive ‘mute’ series! A wonderful sculpture to behold, make sure to check it out below. 👇
‘Angry Cat’ is a gorgeous new glitch piece from Tù.úk’z, available on offer in Tezos on OBJKT’s platform until Sunday, January 9th. Cast your crypto, people! This could get interesting. 👀
Whilst not a WIP or a completed 1/1 artwork (similar to what Mical and Tù.úk’z have produced), Ikaro’s ‘GM 2022’ is certainly a feel-good piece to start the year! Being very Y2K in aesthetic (and 2022 in accordance to Pantone’s colour of the year), this 3D piece made our day with its quirky design.
See it for yourself below! 👇
In Conclusion ✨
To conclude this roundup, we are currently experiencing the calm before the VerticalCrypto storm. Enjoying a peaceful festive break, residents are now ready to present their best work for the upcoming auction. Mentors look forward to welcoming new Cohort III residents, and the VCA team is working diligently behind the scenes.
So, what comes next? More on this below! 👇
Spoiler for next week in VerticalCrypto Art 🤷
Next Wednesday at 8PM CET, January 12th, Micol will present a new Twitter Spaces discussion with an influential group of digital art and art NFT curators and innovators: ‘Discussing Art NFTs: Ways of Curating’!
Co-hosted by Jesse Damiani and Anika Meier and featuring influential Web3 curators, gallerists, historians and advisors such as Jason Bailey, Kate Vass, Alfred Weidinger, Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan and Addie Wagenknecht, this discussion is guaranteed to be an interesting take on contemporary NFT curation praxes.
Set a reminder for the Twitter Spaces event here!
The second cohort’s VerticalCrypto Art residency auction is fast approaching. Launching Wednesday January 19th in Arium Spaces, we will keep you up to date with the latest developments and, finally, the auction itself! Stay tuned! 📡
CryptoYuna recently announced the Annual Graffiti Queens NFT Art Festival, taking place April 3rd-10th in London, England. Find out more about this exciting, all female NFT event here!
Alright — that’s all for this week! Stay safe, enjoy your weekend and we hope to see you at the next VerticalCrypto Art Roundup! 😇✨
