Luminescence | Curators’ Note
The process of uniting two ideas, seamlessly, is the art of integration.
For centuries, humans have organically pushed beyond plateaus to greater heights continuously stirring the minds of deep thinkers, creators, civilizations, and alchemists.
Technology has finally caught up, nipping at the ankles of consciousness in a race to understand and explore beyond what is known.
Luminescence brings together a collection of contemporary artists who explore how technology shapes our identities and cultures of the future. With this exhibition, be immersed in both physical and digital realms to connect and question your very identity within this paradigm shift. Explore human connectivity with expression in real time as you become one with the exhibition.
View the Immersive NFT Collection on Portion:
Meet the Featured Artists
Zoe Winters
Zoe Winters is a professional animator from Seattle, Washington. She graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in DX (digital arts) and Japanese. Her most recent exhibitions were with Metacon in Dubai, and Rarible at NFT LA. Zoe says, "the meaningful, complex, and visually attractive narratives woven into East Asian art have fascinated me and continue to translate into my work.” As her artistic compositions explore the duality of light and darkness, viewers feel connected to the layers of emotions present in each piece she creates. Zoe is also pioneering in the space of AR (augmented reality) creating real-world assets from 3d software. She will be one of the leading builders of the metaverse over the next decade. Pushing the boundaries and possibilities of digital art, she aims to reach people on a spiritual level through meaningful artwork while combating an era of isolation.
Artwork Name: “Road to Redemption” // “Awoke in an Artificial Dream”
Date of creation: May 2022
Medium: Animation
About the artwork:
Road to Redemption: Zoe’s original character, Buddha Bunni, runs infinitely around a small glowing planet with mysterious emerald crystals and wires. There is a clear contrast between dark and cute elements, as well as organic and inorganic materials. In exploring opposing sides of ourselves, we ultimately discover our highest state of being should we choose to follow that road. This NFT will come with a special Metaverse surprise in the following months for collectors.
Awoke in an Artificial Dream: A girl has awoken in a manufactured dream, created by artistry and technology allowing for the creation of worlds through animation. Several adorable lab-created characters represent the manifestation of the demons that haunt our psyche in a disarming form, in which they can no longer cause harm. Zoe’s research in contemporary Japanese art, the Superflat art movement, Game Design, Traditional Art, and technology has contributed to the style of her original characters and compositions. This 1/1 NFT will come with a special Metaverse surprise in the following months for the collector.
Orbseer
Alan Valentin, aka Orbseer, has created breathtaking work across many different mediums on his path to becoming the world’s first holographic NFT artist. Orb’s jaw-dropping work, Resillusion, was showcased at WAGMIAMI at Art Basel 2021 and touched the hearts of more than 100,000 attendees who were fortunate to witness it firsthand. Many attendees remarked that the holographic masterpiece displayed on the custom-built 70x14 foot curved screen was the single most emotion-invoking and artistic expression seen throughout the entire week. We are ecstatic to partner with him on a new installation and believe he will define an entire new category of NFT art with this historic piece.
Originally from Mexico, Orb is a multidisciplinary artist who pushes technology to its highest potential and connects with the human spirit through his art. After studying film and sound scoring, he has worked in the holographic, 3D, and virtual reality spaces with 3D Live. He worked as a part of 3D Live’s team that built the award-winning Mass Effect ride at the Bay Area’s Great America Amusement Park. Some of his clients from earlier this year include Audemar Piguet, Diplo, Lil Baby, and RL Grime to name a few. Orb also recently received a special shoutout from Reggie Watts on the Joe Rogan Experience for his unprecedented artwork that touches everyone who experiences it firsthand.
All of Orb’s work is the first of its kind in a unique genre he terms Soul Holograms. His work is based on his time spent in the lucid dream state and his connection to The Creator. We are thrilled to support and bring Orb’s masterful work to life for our NFT community in New York for NFT NYC 2022. Orb has broken completely new ground with his stunning panoramic, 3D-visual, and musical masterpiece.
Artwork Name: Elevator to 33rd
Date of creation: April 2022
Medium: Digital
About the artwork: Inspired and made after a psychedelic elevator ride in NY where I heard the most beautiful song. I don’t know if I will ever hear that song again but I aspire to find moments as special as that.
Antoni Tudisco
Creative director & 3D visual artist Antoni Tudisco was born & raised in Hamburg, Germany where he grew up studying media management, web design, and development programming. As a fashion enthusiast, he has worked with top-tier brands Nike, Adidas, Versace, and Puma, and has launched his own brand TUDISCO STUDIO. His surreal and colorful style has been featured in Vogue, Highsnobiety, Hypebeast, and he has collaborated with major artists such as Will Smith, Pop Smoke, Swae Lee, and Steve Aoki.
Artwork Name: Eye on You
Date of creation: May 2021
Medium: 3D Animation
About the artwork: 'Eye on You' was a collaboration between Tohi x Antoni Tudisco, built atop of an exclusive preview of TOHI’s new single, his first ever international collaboration delivered in the English language — as part of his 2021 new EP.
“Gain access to the seat of the soul and learn to open up your third eye, because Tohi will be coming soon with the Sixth Sense.”
Gavin Shapiro
Gavin Shapiro is a digital artist whose ultimate goal is to produce work that makes you smile. He focuses primarily on playful conceptual artworks that explore how we can use digital tools to confront our expectations of what’s possible in a traditionally physical art world. He's lived in New York, Osaka and Paris, working on a large variety of projects including tv shows, commercials, outdoor displays, large-format stage visuals, and animations for casino games.
His personal work, released under the name “shapiro500,” has been used as visuals at music festivals and concerts all over the world, and has been shown on digital billboards as part of art exhibitions in New York City, Paris and Tokyo. His animations have accumulated hundreds of millions of views across Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Giphy, and have been sold as NFTs on Nifty Gateway as well as SuperRare since mid-2020.
Artwork Name: My brain when I'm trying to fall asleep
Date of creation: June 2020
Medium: Cinema 4D, Octane Render, After Effects
About the artwork: Creating this was one of the defining moments in the development of my artistic style. While I had already centered my style around surreal, seamlessly looping animations, this was the first time I had ever made a looping animation in which the scale of the scene constantly increased. Much of my work following this piece further experimented with the idea of a scene changing in scale while still looping perfectly.
Grif
Grif Studio is an independent creative studio and art practice located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Specializing in bespoke original artwork, animation & live action direction for moving image, Grif has directed branded films, and created art for the likes of Apple, Nike, HP, Givenchy, & Louis Vuitton.
Artwork Name: Lady Nature // The Tiger Who Felt Like a Lion // Great Basin Skate Heaven
Date of creation: 2021/2022
Medium: 3D Animation
About the artwork:
Lady Nature: A dense patchwork of flowers arranged in a Dutch-garden style bloom on the head of a young woman, set against an infinite sky. The vibrant floral arrangement symbolizes youth, optimism, and beauty. The looping animation emphasizes nature's cycles, life, death, and the passing of time.
The Tiger Who Felt Like a Lion: A visual metaphor of change, self reflection, growth, and identity. A tiger mimics the mane of a lion as he sprints through an infinite plane, only to shed the illusion and return to his natural stripes.
Great Basin Skate Heaven: We follow a skater as they perform tricks and stunts in a skaters paradise, located in the Utah Great Basin. The idyllic sunset scene bears witness to the transfer of energy between this floral figure and the contrasting graffiti-soaked concrete environment beneath. The figure, acting as a catalyst, pollinates the park causing nature to reclaim the concrete.
Minelauva
Sefa Kocakalay, born in 1999.Generative artist based in Turkey. All the visionary, psychedelic, surrealist, and abstract artworks that I create are made using current, different artificial intelligence technologies and inspired by my imagination.
Artwork Name: Deep Visions
Date of creation: June 2022
Medium: Generative Art / AI
About the artwork: There are some moments when you have a hard time explaining yourself. At these times words are insufficient. These are times you want to express what you feel. And here it is "AI." I believe I denounce myself with 1 and 0 instead of using words. You may find something of yourself on this voyage. "Just dream in an artificial way."
Maria Gudjohnsen
Maria Gudjohnsen is an Icelandic 3D artist based in New York City. Her work depicts utopian speculations of potential realities, inspired by the future, Sci-fi, and computer graphics.
Artwork Name: HER
Date of creation: May 2022
Medium: Video
About the artwork: HER is a visual exploration of Beauty.
Jeremy Torman
Jeremy Torman is an artist obsessed with depicting the visionary psychedelic experience, utilizing cutting edge computer vision tools.
Artwork Name: Pastel Disco.
Date of creation: May 2022
Medium: Generative Adversarial Networks and Diffusion Transformers for image synthesis.
About the artwork: Synthesizing Psychedelic Closed Eye Visuals using Generative Adversarial Networks.
Farah Manley
A 2D/3D digital artist (formally an architect) and mom who creates surreal worlds and environments that take you away from the ordinary. Bringing elements of architecture, childhood playfulness, memories with a hint of eerie.
Artwork Name: Curiosity no. 3
Date of creation: May 2022
Medium: 2D/3D digital art
About the artwork: A continuation of Farah’s Labyrinth – a series; Portals and worlds where one can get lost in.
Stillman x Yonson
Jacob Stillman (StillmanVisual) is a self-taught 3D artist based out of New York City. Originally from St. Louis, much of his inspiration comes from his experiences with the complexities of nature and the solitude it brought him as a child. This strong emotional connection with everyday life shines through in many of his works, with an acute attention to detail that tells a larger story of personal reflection and past remembrances through surreal natural phenomena.
Yoni Sonis aka YONSON is a 3D artist working out of Miami, Florida. His work explores the theme of human connection in a digital realm, often introducing relevance to abstract compositions and surreal environments. Spanning music, print, fashion, and corporate industries, Yoni has worked with clients such as Apple, Sony Music, Nike, Kaskade, Lil Baby, Cactus Jack, Adobe Aero, Warner Music, EDC Las Vegas, Quibi, Dan Marino, Zion & Lennox, SurfStyle, Eli Brown, LSDream, and many more.
Artwork Name: TEMPERAMENTS
Date Created: May 2022
Medium: 3D Animation
About the artwork: TEMPERAMENTS is a collection of eight 3D animations that explore the nature of The Four Elements and how they impact the mind, body and spirit of ourselves.
Nygilia - Fantasyfuturegirl
Nygilia, aka fantasyfuturegyal, is a mixed media artist that specializes in blending 2D & 3D styles, inspired by Afro and Asian Culture. She uses Virtual reality painting blended with surreal abstraction to create immersive worlds in her art.
Artwork Name: Starfall
Date Created: Part of the Astro Dreams Collection, May 2022
Medium: Virtual Reality and 3D Animation
About the artwork: "No matter where you go, I am always with you." | A collection of afro-fantasy characters created with virtual reality painting and 3D music. This collaboration project is an exploration of combining elements to tell surreal, abstract, and artistic stories that embody culture. It is vital that our imaginations reflect the potential of afro-art in the VR space. Inspired by Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, and Kingdom Hearts.
Johana Kroft
Johana Kroft is 3D artist and designer coming from the Czech Republic with 9 years of experience in Agencies DDB and Ogilvy Prague. After living in London and establishing a studio Idea & Maker, she works worldwide interpreting her colorful style in 3D worlds in various styles and techniques while creating illustrations and motion design videos. Her personal work is elegant and poetic. Inspired by traveling, dogs and emotions.
Artwork Name: Extraortinary Alien
Date Created: May 2022
Medium: 3D animation
About the artwork: This Alien's a non-binary unhuman made for all of us who love bold colours and abstract creation. Is a digital character with a shy personality. Their main characteristic is a purple hairstyle and deep blue eyes. It's inspired by my beloved New York and the people who live here.
Fesq
Fesq is a Brazilian Art Director, 3D Artist, and self-taught professional specialized in the digital space. His consistent and particular color palette organically became his signature over the years, while his work branches into two main conceptual paths. One explores the cyberpunk aesthetic while oftentimes critiquing society as a whole. The other has a more sensitive approach, covering some of his personal experiences and emotions. Deeply involved in NFT space, Fesq has a solid collector base all around the globe and is currently focused on developing his personal projects while spreading his knowledge about this new frontier.
Artwork Name: Stardust
Date Created: April 2022
Medium: 3D Art and Animation
About the artwork: This piece is an ode to change, it’s about the progressive evolution of everything, where things can start small and then transform into something beautiful over time.
Joe Tamponi
Joe Tamponi is an illustrator / lazy skateboarder, punk rock lover and small waves seeker.
Artwork Name: The Inner Monologue Series
Date Created: May 2022
Medium: Digital Art - Procreate + After Effects
About the artwork: The Inner Monologue is a spin-off of the Neon Weirdos project. It’s a stream of consciousness, an inner trip into the reality we’re living in, in a world endangered by climate change and wars after two miserable years of the pandemic.
Ofir K.
Ofir K. is an artist based in Israel. She explores the mind and the consciousness through video animations with repeating geometric shapes that create psychedelic journeys with multiple transformations and transitions. Through the creation process of the animations, a new narrative takes place, builds in the process that is guided by her intuition.
Starting from blank, she explores geometrical shapes with a new order at a time. Then, animating the shapes with an exploration of new geometrical hierarchies and intensive movement that evoke an emotional reaction. "When creating, I have to feel the movement of the shapes and their transitions. It's like a mirror to my emotional processing and intuition."
Artwork Name: Hypnagogia
Date Created: February 2022
Medium: Digital Art, Software - Adobe After Effects
About the artwork: This animation was created as inspiration from the experience of the Hypnagogia state of mind. It has a lot of transitions, vibrations, and sensations that occur during this stage, and its intuitive and surreal experiences. In this state, it's as being in between two states of consciousness, experiencing some elements of sleep mixed with some aspects of wakefulness.
MetaMoves
Jonny Mehraban is a motion capture expert, co-founder of Cinetica Studio and co-founder of MetaMoves, the only NFT project of cross-platform decentralized movements.
Artwork Name: Decentralized movements: a web3 tale
Date Created: May 2022
Medium: Motion capture, Unreal, Engine, Maya
About the artwork: The “Decentralized movements: a web3 tale” shows the journey of a two-way bored mouse that despite being held back by its opponents, succeeded in reaching the apogee after being inspired by creative minds and thought leaders shaping the web3. This artwork honors movement as an integral part of our digital identity, interoperability as the cornerstone of web3, and diversity as a key to a more compassionate future.
DesmaViz
DesmaViz aka Francesco Flore is an Architect and Digital artist. He loves to combine his architectural background and his passion for it, for visualization, and the crepuscular atmospheres to tell stories, and to travel in more places than he’ll see in his life.
Artwork Name: Anamorph_Eye
Date of creation: January 2022
Medium: Rhinoceros 3D to model, v-ray to render and the geometry of anamorphs to develop the illusion
About the artwork: This work is an attempt to make people closer to the problems related to those who experienced loneliness due to some disability. In this case, the subjects are everyone that has no perfect sight. For this reason, the side walls offer the visitor the experience of myopia (on the left) and of the scotoma (on the right). The back wall, instead, is designed to be perfectly perceived. The artwork continues to play with the visitor thanks to the anamorphism. From the Portion logo, it is possible to discover the Celtic symbol and the aphorism that completes the installation. This one is the full experience that will accompany the person.
MGOGLKTKO
Born and raised in Cd. Juarez Chih. Mexico, a wild and history-rich border town, Carlos Luna James, aka MGOGLKTKO, later moved to Guadalajara, to pursue a degree in Design. In 2007, right after graduating from college, he moved to Los Angeles to follow his dream.
As an immigrant in the US and coming from a country where the original culture was wiped out by colonization, Carlos's imaginary travelers take a different path. The shared culture and knowledge between civilizations creates an elevated alternate future for his multiverse.
Inspired by sci-fi, fantasy, culture and technology, his works explore cultural diversity and subsequent hybridization as a fertile soil for cultivating positive human emotions, such as kindness and empathy, and sees the ability to migrate whether in reality or in the metaverse as an opportunity to explore visions of utopian worlds. His mission is to promote empathy, love and happiness through his work.
Carlos seamlessly combines digital, projection and physical art, while incorporating sculpture, digital screens, projectors, video mapping, laser cutting, and 3D printing in his creative process.
As a designer, he has worked with companies such as FOX, Universal, Disney, DreamWorks, Paramount, Sony, Relativity, TNT, and TBS among others. His phygital installations have been hits at major Art Fairs and gallery shows across the US, including the prestigious auction house at Sotheby’s London UK. His NFT collaborations include TIME Magazine, Timbaland and Jake Paul.
Artwork Name: ZENITH
Date Created: 2022
Medium: 3D Animation with Sound Design.
About the artwork: Inspired by sci-fi, culture & technology, “Zenith” is depicted as a time of consciousness; moving through life with the power of love and empathy. The artwork is influenced by the highest inner self connection and visions of dreams in the center point of his journey. The experiential art piece is a celestial sphere associated with a moment in time, connecting with the highest point reached by the rhythm of the universe.
Vini Naso
Vini Naso is a digital artist exploring how notions of beauty and visual identity are expanding in the digital age. He mixes influences from folk art, modern fashion, and cyberpunk to create something time-agnostic and perhaps a little uncomfortable. Working in a purely digital medium allows him the freedom to explore ideas, shapes, materials, and textures that aren’t constrained by the limitations of the physical world. Naso is interested in how digital technologies will help shape posthuman aesthetics. Old notions of identity bind us less when our humanity isn’t necessarily attached to traditional human form. He has been featured on Vogue Italia as a leading artist reinventing views around beauty, technology, and identity. Also, Naso was the 2020 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize winner for Digital Art.
Artwork Name: Anatta
Date of creation: Collaboration with Ehsan Parizi, Created in 2022
Medium: C4D, Houdini, Marvelous Designer and Substance Designer.
About the artwork: Anatta is the idea that humans have an Impermanent self. "Impermanence means being transformed at every moment. This is reality. And since there is nothing unchanging, how can there be a permanent self." -Thich Nhat Hanh
Niohuru x Suki Violet Su
Niohuru is a NYC & LA based makeup artist and creative director. Niohuru is known for creating physical 3D makeup that looks like digital art, pushing the lines between physical and digital art. They use their creative journey to explore the ying & yang/light and darkness of humanity. Created by a Chinese Manchu trans artist who survived conversion therapy, their work is often inspired by trauma, sexuality, nature with colors from their unique Manchurian cultural background. They are a storyteller, through the language of human emotions. They are a shapeshifter, sprouting from a glamorous Eastern nightmare.
Suki Violet Su is a NYC-based Visual Artist and MV Director. As an eastern surrealist who grew up in China's largest immigrant city and was nomadic with the world, Su has been exploring the human sense of belonging, commonalities, and the tension between Eastern and Western visual narratives. She committed to presenting different media and multi-dimensional visual connections, exploring domain boundaries, and embedding personal visual language. Her works comprise Eastern and Western cultures, religious beliefs, and female power, incorporating 3D digital art, graphic design, photography, and conceptual films.
Artwork Name: SKINSEQ-GERMINATION
Date Created: May 2022
Medium: CGI Digital Art
About the artwork: SKINSEQ-GERMINATION is a NFT digital makeup collection created by Suki Violet Su and Niohuru X. Inspired by Animism, it is the philosophical reflection of cosmic consciousness projected through digital art. The human face is the consolidation of the reset of the manifestation of the emotion and metaphysical universe. A new qualitative sequence of consciousness emerges on our authentic skin and bones.
Pain is bread, blood is wine
Sprouting from his dying bed
She is the new god
Horny evil
Sucking on
Tender nipples
About Portion | 21st Century Auction House & Metaverse Development Studio
Portion connects artists and collectors through blockchain technology to easily sell, invest and own NFT art, music, and collectibles with verified authenticity and tracked provenance. Portion’s curated drops source works from iconoclastic creators across the media landscape, while the decentralized marketplace empowers emerging artists and formats. Everything Portion does is in service of breaking down barriers to art and wealth while growing the $PRT economy. From taking as little as 0% of artists' work to offering 11% royalties on secondary sales, supporting creators is Portion’s mission. Est. 2016.
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