Thursday 9th saw the launch of the third Greg Rook Advisory (blackbird) NFT exhibition on the SuperRare platform and I think that this is the best show yet. The artists involved have really responded to this new media and new platform, and produced work that they would not have made before and have certainly found an audience that was not there before. I’m incredibly proud of the contribution that they are making in this new world.
As alluded to above, this show and all future shows will be launched as ‘blackbird’ shows - the Greg Rook Advisory NFT gallery profile.
My initial approach, taken in the first two curated exhibitions, was to see the exhibitions, and my curatorial presence on SuperRare, as being modelled after a traditional contemporary art gallery and their annual exhibition programmes. I was interested in working with contemporary artists whose practice I admired and respected - sculptors, video artists and painters etc., in developing pieces with these new mediums and for this new audience.
I began to talk to those whose work I could see being reframed in this context, and it soon became apparent that we had concerns around finding the right intersection points for their work within world of NFTs. It would be easy to turn images into jpegs and mint them as NFTs, but as thoughtful contemporary artists, they were interested in seeing it as an opportunity to make work that was as much a product of true artistic output as anything else they would put out in the world.
They soon found that reframing work in this new context, with these new processes and new materials, led to possibilities and outcomes that they would never had reached had they not branched out. They began to find that more than offering digital versions of previous work, they were able to reimagine, and that this led them in unexpected directions.
For this third show I encouraged artists to work more with sound as the constraints of the file size for image and sound are also fascinating - it's a bit like being in at the start of vinyl and the 3 minute pop song. The NFTs they have made for this show are fascinating investigations of these restraints and possibilities.
Click the image above to be taken to the SuperRare show, or the Discord or blackbird link below to be taken to the growing blackbird Discord channel or the blackbird webpage.
If you’re interested in investing in thoughtful contemporary art in the form of NFTs then follow the link HERE for a previous blog post explaining how to get started.
