UNDRGRND DIGS 064
JULY 17TH, 2023
5 Artists From the UNDRGRND Collection
UNDRGRND DIGS is a periodical feature showcasing artists that the UNDRGRND curators dig. We sift through the social media and NFT platforms to find the best artists waiting to be discovered. UNDRGRND believes in the artists we feature and we will purchase NFTs from each artist featured.
The blockchain symbol appearing next to the artist’s name indicates which UNDRGRND collection.
Jean Saucisse takes pen to paper creating beautifully traumatic scenes that feel like an abomination of a creative child of Ralph Steadman and Tim Maxwell. The immediate horrific effect on the viewer only filters out those unable to handle the beauty hidden within. Prompted Future begs the question, even hopes for, if the current state of AI saturation will lead to a future filled with individuals overcome with Stendhal Syndrome (a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion, and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty and antiquity).
Jenna Mikal blends AI with her abundance of artistic talent to create a seamless partnership where many trained individuals would be hard-pressed to differentiate between artist creations and collaborations between artist and machine. Her series Details in Details of modern scene speaks to this search for the specific details that help us define scenes of play, happiness, and simple life. Eventually, thanks to artists like Jenna, society will drop the moniker “AI artists” and be left with just "artists"; that she and others are already.
Venta ꜩ
The growing frustration from outsiders concerning AI art needs to familiarize themselves with artists like Venta. Venta’s digital painting blends seamlessly with the mutated-by-radiation-exposure creatures that AI programs tend to output. Perhaps Venta’s input images even torture the machine in a type of revenge to reinforce our dominance as the superior being. Our use of AI is a conversation between machine and creator; a collaboration where the languages are similar but nuances are lost at various stages of the process. We learn that despite a breakdown in communication and information lost in translation produces something entirely new, something created together, beyond what we understood ourselves.
Diverr ◎
The infamous riverboat scene from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory produced nightmares for an entire generation. Diverr’s Isolated World: 3 may exist in the same realm but as the inverse. A boat travels down a river but rather than a captain attempting to induce a panic attack as the passengers grimace against vile scenes, these experience a colorful, graffiti-styled universe where the hallucinations may become real but open a world of possibility rather than emotional destruction.
Louize ◎
Louize’s talent is obvious in the detail of her Maori-styled animals that do so much with simple black and white. These works though show the power of art and the connections we draw from simple designs and colors. Black Maori Little Bears bear (pun intended) a resemblance to We Bare Bears, a beautiful cartoon about three brothers. The Black Maori Dragonflies resemble the dragonflies from a former underground band Coheed & Cambria. And while Louize may have no awareness of these references, the fact remains that her art can connect those audiences that do and transfer those nostalgic and fond memories to her art, with just black and white intricate lines. That’s the power of art, connecting us and finding a common reference point without ever speaking a word to one another.
