In 2021, a new creator economy was born on the blockchain. Since NFTs took center stage, artists have achieved NFT superstardom, billion-dollar brands have been forged in just a few months, and many lives have been utterly transformed time and again. Yet, the most inspiring thing about the NFT space is the number of artists of all creeds and mediums who have found community and support by embracing this technology.

In keeping with our mission to empower creators, we present Next Up — our monthly franchise dedicated to showcasing rising artists. In our October edition, we’ve curated a list of five ascendant talents who are poised to make significant waves in 2022.

Jonas Pfeiffer

Jonas Pfeiffer is a visual artist based in Hamburg, Germany. With a focus on 3D and motion design, he has been tapped for client work by a range of influential brands, including Mercedes and the NFL. In the NFT space, Pfeiffer has become known for his unique, surreal, and sometimes haunting 3D pieces that have proliferated throughout both the Ethereum and Tezos NFT ecosystems.

Lana Denina

Lana Denina is a Montreal-based painter of Beninese and French origin. Her art explores human relationships, morphological diversity, and body movements. Through a combination of digital art and painting, Denina illustrates the different cultures (particularly black culture) present in her own life, taking a unique and personal approach to representing people of color in contemporary art. With an aim to promote a world where people can own their sexuality without feeling afraid or even ashamed, her 1/1 NFTs on SuperRare and Foundation, as well as her small batch collection, The Mona Lana, Denina has gained widespread acclaim throughout the NFT community.

We spoke with Denina and asked a few questions about NFTs, and her artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

In January 2021, I became interested in NFTs after having the concept explained to me. NFTs enable us to trade digital assets while keeping track of digital ownerships but also keeping the asset in its authentic form which is digital — this was mindblowing for me. NFTs made me realize how much I, as a digital artist, needed this new technology. I began my journey only one month after.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

My art is very true to me, and all my paintings are a reflection of my mind. I talk about various subjects through aesthetic beauty. Painting naked figures fascinates me. I find the naked body to be extremely powerful, especially the female form. The bodies of women have been used as pleasurable objects for the male gaze for centuries. However, the way I paint women is from my own experience of being a woman in our world. I paint my women looking bold and strong. I would describe my art as being powerful, pleasing, and ethereal.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

I do have a collection dropping in the coming weeks, so definitely keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram for the announcement. Currently, I have one piece available on auction and a few open for offers on SuperRare.

omentejovem

Omentejovem, born Thales Machado, is a Brazilian visionary artist who first found a love for design via Photoshop at 12 years old. Having started out making designs for video games and his musician friends, over the past decade, he’s shifted his focus toward telling individualistic stories and visions through his works. One of the most prominent crypto-artists out of Brazil, Machado has gained notoriety in both the Ethereum and Tezos ecosystems over the past few years with his bright colors, abstract compositions, and ideology-fueled narratives.

We spoke with Machado and asked a few questions about NFTs, and his artistic process.

How did you first become interested and involved in NFTs?

I started to publicize my work on Twitter. That’s when I saw Etiene Crauss selling his first digital pieces on SuperRare, I was quite curious to understand and fell down the rabbit hole. I was always a digital designer and I never had much contact with physical artworks. I never imagined the art market to be something accessible to me. I still didn’t fully get the concept of being a designer or artist, but when I got to understand NFTs, I realized that the agony I felt when creating designs was just my desire to express my own ideas without having to fit into a concept or idea that I didn’t believe in. Finding my artistic and financial freedom by doing and expressing what I really want through NFTs has been a blessing. I am living what I am living.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

Fluid, intuitive and personal. The process occurs even before the artwork sometimes. It’s cool, but also working and letting the process be fluid. I think I could say my process is almost always very experimental, fluid, and intuitive.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

I’m focusing [on] new [releases], and looking to improve my creations via 1/1s but I have some good releases on the way. Without a release date yet, but everything will be announced via Twitter.

Ryan D. Anderson

Ryan D. Anderson is a Canadian animator based in Toronto who creates art at the intersection of stop-motion animation and nostalgia. First finding his love for animation after discovering the interval button on his dad’s Hi-8 camcorder when he was a kid, Anderson went to school for cinematography, working as a film editor, music video director, and photographer thereafter. Using 3D software, he’s worked to translate his multidisciplinary learnings into his signature brand of animation, building scenes that are animated, photographed, and rendered into 2D images.

We spoke with Anderson and asked a few questions about NFTs, and his artistic process.

How did you first become interested/involved in NFTs?

During the pandemic, my way of processing my own anxiety was to animate. I kept my head down and focused my thinking towards creating and it helped calm me down. Everything I made was very honest and related to how I felt in one way or another. After a year of making these animations consistently, I was asked to join SuperRare, and soon after made my first sale.

After that, I was welcomed into the community by a few incredibly kind people who showed me around and helped me get started. Since then I’ve made tons of friends and absolutely love this space. I struggled for a long time looking for a place where my work fits outside of just social media. After a lot of outlets telling me they liked my animations but the way I presented my work didn’t fit with their publication/website/blog, it felt incredibly nice for my work to finally have landed in a place where it could fit comfortably.

How would you describe your art? What’s your process like?

I make scenes that are based on sub-themes of nostalgia. It’s something that I felt a lot during the pandemic. My entire style is based on aesthetics I loved, from the comics I read as a kid to National Film Board shorts to magazine illustrations from the 80s and 90s. All these things rolled into one experiment focused on putting memories into animations.

I usually come up with a theme from something that’s been on my mind for a while. I boil that thing down to a word and make a scene that’s analogous to that. I’ll build a word in 3D, then move around and find a story within that scene and animate it. It’s not a very technical approach, but [that’s because] it’s more about helping me process my thoughts and literally shift[ing] my perspective.

Sometimes I make weirdo animations that are outside my nostalgic work and those I post less often, but [they] are incredibly fun to make.

Do you have any drops/collections on the horizon we should keep an eye out for?

I’m going to be dropping a set of three connected pieces in October that are going to be a little darker than my usual work, in the spirit of Halloween. Other than that, I try and have work available as much as I can, and announce things regularly through Twitter, where I post my work daily.

Serwah Attafuah

Serwah Attafuah is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based in West Sydney, Australia. Through her pieces, she creates what she calls “surreal cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands” populated by afro-futuristic abstractions of self. Featuring strong ancestral and contemporary themes, Attafuah’s art has caught the eye of numerous influential brands and entities, leading to her collaborating with Mercedes Benz, Nike, GQ, Adobe, Paris Hilton, Charli XCX, and more.

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