HAVEN

Arcade Project Curatorial and ONBD are pleased to present HAVEN, an exhibition of digital art, photography, installation, and sculpture in collaboration with SuperRare in our gallery spaces at 56 Bogart and at the Streetsky Gallery in Decentraland (-6, -126). Participating Artists: Renee Cox, Shinji Murakami, Nueps, Royal, Shlumper, and Frank WANG Yefeng.

Web3, the metaverse, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become widely discussed topics in the media, tech, and­ commerce communities.

Many metaverses exist, while others are currently under construction, offering new opportunities to experience the world and form communities. However, as we move into Web3, we must reflect on Web 2.0. The social media interface that connected millions of global strangers has a dark side ­– creating platforms for radicalization and the harassment and abuse of members of marginalized communities.

HAVEN is a safe space for artists, collectors, and enthusiasts to explore the metaverse’s possibilities. Rather than recreating and reinforcing the toxic power structures that stifle both the art and tech worlds, HAVEN makes space for artists working across various media, building a bridge between the physical and the digital by blurring the boundaries — creating a slippage between realms. Haven challenges the intrinsic biases and economic barriers of new technologies by encouraging dialogue around Web3’s subversive, liberatory potential.

Renee Cox

Renee Cox (b. 1960, Colgate, Jamaica; lives in New York) makes photographs, collages, and installations that draw on art history, fashion photography and popular culture. Her work invokes a critical vision of female sexuality, beauty, power and heroism through nudity, religious imagery and symbolism that inform her interdisciplinary process. She is most noted for her larger than life photographs of female bodies. She reexaminations the black female figure in the context of structures of power. Inspired by critical epochs and artistic styles, her works are often reimaginations of art history, ranging from the Italian Renaissance such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, to Cubism (Picasso), Modernism (Édouard Manet) to traditional West African Art (Dogon, Mali, Cross River section of Nigeria).

THE WEB CYCLE

This image is from the body of work, “SOUL CULTURE ”, which consists of digitally manipulated black & white portraits that display self-similar patterns. They are executed with precision, creating sculptural kaleidoscopes of the human body while exploring the power of symbols as elements of the collective imagination. The inspiration for this new work comes from fractals, sacred geometry a mathematical concept centuries old and used by many ancient African cultures, and only realized by Europeans in the 1980s Identity politics, empowerment, race, and women’s issues are the dominant forces that motivate me to create. I like to represent women of status and stature. Deconstructing stereotypes has been an integral part of my art in order to engage the viewer, and challenge their preconceived ideas about gender and race. My goal has often been to produce art that will take people out of their comfort zone and produce healthy discourses. This is when I feel the most joy and fulfillment.

@Renee Cox
Platform: SuperRare

Shinji Murakami

Shinji Murakami’s artworks are inspired by the work of Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as by technological pioneers including Apple’s Steve Jobs and Gunpei Yokoi, who invented the Nintendo Game Boy. The original version of the handheld video-game device used an 8-bit pixel display system; Murakami is known for three-dimensional renderings of these flat, digital bytes that he makes using resolutely analog materials like wood and ink, and more recently, as digital objects minted as NFTs. The works may depict technology that is now long-outdated, but they nevertheless retain a futuristic air.

Happy Sesame Place

This work is about a shameful incident that occurred at an amusement park, a place meant to be a wonderful dream experience for all children. Racist employees at Sesame Place in Philadelphia, USA, ignored two black children, subjecting them to emotional trauma and embarrassment. I know the mother of the two girls involved in this incident may not want to see my interpretation of the event, but I wanted to create a work that shows the way things should have been. Living is a hard thing. We go through a lot of things we don't want to go through. But we do not want to deprive our children of their dreams.

Nueps

Noelia Puig (1995, Spain) is a digital content creator who works under the pseudonym nueps. Her artistic process and her projects are defined by her interest in absurd, dream-like and surreal imagery. Using fluorescent colors and digitally manipulating highly abstracted versions of the natural (and human-made) world, nueps creates an alternate universe that ranges from fantastical-psychedelic creatures to reinventions of the most every day, mundane objects.

Picnic

Pleasant and happy spring afternoon of 2022 on the Turia river.

@Nupes
Platform: SuperRare

Greed

We eat through the eyes 👀

Poster 50 x 70 cm created in 2022.

@Nupes
Platform: SuperRare

R❤️YAL

R❤️YAL has been synonymous with the Los Angeles art community for over 20 Years. From their early days as a pioneer of the Hollywood Street Art movement to gallery exhibits around the globe, moving into the Metaverse was inevitable. Known for their use of icons both past and present, crowns & hearts, comics, & fresh phrases, R❤️YAL’s signature is unmistakable. R❤️YAL has worked with too many Hollywood personalities, brands, and artist peers to mention, including Andre 2000, Busta Rhymes, Justin Beiber, Katey Perry, Lil Wayne, and many more as well as showing alongside Blek le Rat, Shepard Fairey, RETNA, Mr.Brainwash , Alec Monopoly, & Plastic Jesus. Now using their street style in a more unique way, R❤️YAL is reimagining Fine Art for the Digital age exploring the integration of physical and digital art. They have had their NFTs displayed in Shanghai, Miami, Art Basel, and New York and are continuing to grow in the Metaverse with Street Art and Fashion.

Near Hereafter

When R❤️YAL entered the NFT space, they realized that their physical collection of work had thousands of other possibilities. Now using their street style in a more unique way, R❤️YAL is reimagining Fine Art for the Digital age exploring the integration of physical and digital art. With the opportunity of pushing their work on a decentralized platform, R❤️YAL can now exercise their freedom of expression in web 3 and spread messages in the Metaverse about equality and social justice.

@ROYAL
Platform: SuperRare

Fantastic Futurist

When R❤️YAL entered the NFT space, they realized that their physical collection of work had thousands of other possibilities. Now using their street style in a more unique way, R❤️YAL is reimagining Fine Art for the Digital age exploring the integration of physical and digital art. With the opportunity of pushing their work on a decentralized platform, R❤️YAL can now exercise their freedom of expression in web 3 and spread messages in the Metaverse about equality and social justice.

@ROYAL
Platform: SuperRare

Shlumper

Shlumper (aka Kevin Heisner) is a multi-disciplinary artist. Hailing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Art & Technology (1997), he has combined traditional art practices with robotics and other new-media technology including AR, VR, and AI connecting physical spaces to the metaverse. It is his exploration in these cross-media spaces that lended to his discovery of the Spirit Snacks. Kevin works to these ends, continuously building and residing in both Chicago and New York City.

A. Eye of the Beholder

Shlumper (aka Kevin Heisner) is a multi-disciplinary artist. Hailing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Art & Technology (1997), he has combined traditional art practices with robotics and other new-media technology including AR, VR, and AI connecting physical spaces to the metaverse. It is his exploration in these cross-media spaces that lended to his discovery of the Spirit Snacks. Kevin works to these ends, continuously building and residing in both Chicago and New York City.

@Shlumper
Platform: SuperRare

As Much As Nothing

As Much as Nothing refers to the existence of something being near equal to nothing. This piece has two parts: one digital, and the other physical. The digital NFT portion is an AI-generated landscape with a mirror-image of two Spirit Snacks ‘floating’ inside a pill-shaped dome. The physical piece is a mirrored altarpiece upon which are two glass bell jars - one with a physical 3D printed sculpture in its full physical glory, showing its reflection on all nearby reflective surfaces. The other empty glass container shows a floating AR version of the same sculpture, activated on via your phone. The AR version does not show its reflection in the mirrors, but it has shadows as it turns and floats within the screen - making it appear to be very much real and engaging in its presence. Purchase of the NFT comes with the entire physical installation.

@Shlumper
Platform: SuperRare

Frank Wang Yefeng

Frank WANG Yefeng works with 3D animation, sculpture, drawing, and writing. He has exhibited works at BRIC Biennial; Gasworks London; Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing; and Vanguard Gallery Shanghai, etc.

Statue of The Levitating Perils No. 1

• "Statue of The Levitating Perils" No. 1 The character of the animation/video installation artwork "The Levitating Perils" The collector received the GLB model viewed in HTML environment with a unique texture Portrait orientation • Description: “The Levitating Perils” is a digital character, a totem, a burning statue of Chapodiphobia, a dismantled myth of modern-era mythology, an innocent creature asserted guilty by the dominant culture, or a question mark. It is a symbolism that has existed since the Gold Rush, but now it is overthrown. It is a satire that deconstructs its own myth and encourages new imaginations.

• More project info: https://www.wangyefeng.com/secret-webpage-yellow-peril

• Selected exhibition record of "The Levitating Perils," as of September 2022: - "Beast, Chimera, Kin," Hessel Museum of Art at CCS Bard, Annandale on Hudson, NY, 2022 - "Haven," SuperRare Gallery, New York, NY, 2022 - "The Levitating Perils - Solo Exhibition of Frank WANG Yefeng," Chazan Gallery at Wheelers, Providence, RI, USA, 2022 - ISCP Summer Open House, Brooklyn, NY, 2021 - "Night Lights Denver," A Commissioned Public Projection Installation for Denver Digerati, Denver, CO, USA, 2021

@Frank Yang Yefeng
Platform: SuperRare

Statue of BIRDS V2 - Slow Spectre No. 1

• "Statue of BIRDS V2 - Slow Spectre" No. 1, The Character of the animation "BIRDS V2 - Slow Spectre."

• The collector receives the GLB model viewed in HTML environment with a unique texture (portrait or landscape orientation.)

• Somewhere in Europe, a mysterious bird-shaped mannequin was accidentally encountered at a humble café on a country roadside. • Find more at: https://www.wangyefeng.com/birdsv2-slowspectre

@rank Yang Yefeng
Platform: SuperRare