The global cryptocurrency community continues to growth exponentially, but has a magnificent way of making the world seem so much smaller. The Internet and cryptocurrency culture has cultivated friendships, businesses, partnerships, and communities without any interaction in the meatspace. I am currently part of several DAOs, in the midst of forming several more, and have spoken/met with individuals across 6 continents since going into crypto full time.
I had the pleasure of meeting my favorite rising star NFT artist, Giorgio Balbi, via Twitter DM. I originally found Giorgio’s work on OpenSea after reading a Tweet about an upcoming collection he is releasing in collaboration with The N Project. Giorgio is an extremely talented, and very under-appreciated generative artist who works with beautiful and bright color palettes combined with natural geometric patterns. I checked out his two collections and have purchased a couple of his 1:1 pieces:
NFTs are, and will be, everywhere as our world continues to interact with the metaverse. People are spending more time in virtual worlds and digital forms of expression (art, fashion, avatars, etc) will have increasing relevance and value across many applications. NFTs have also provided a way for artists to showcase their creations to a global audience, generated a new economy, and created a rapidly growing culture. I should have my partner Jason write a guest piece on how many mind blowingly crazy applications will involve NFTs, but for now, I’m going to focus on the aesthetic beauty and artist’s story.
Let’s meet Balbi.
Please tell us about yourself and what you do outside crypto.
My close friends call me Balbi, I find it comfortable to be called that, it has become a habit for me, even my wife calls me that! You can call me that, make yourself comfortable.
Many times being able to define oneself is not easy, on the one hand my tastes / habits, on the other hand my way of being and character, I will try to summarize everything by saying that I am a simple person, I love animals, I am patient, I can spend hours trying to solve a problem, I like to spend time alone and immerse myself in the tranquility that surrounds me, but at the same time I like to share moments with my friends.
I think the word self-taught is a word that fits perfectly with my way of being. I have a small industrial maintenance company where I work, I like to play soccer and experiment with thermodynamic equipment. I believe in God and I love spending time with my family. I currently live with my wife Febe, and we have an 8 month old beagle named Chloe, who makes our lives happy.
When did you discover crypto, NFTs, and which came first?
I've heard about bitcoin for years, but hadn't given it importance, didn't understand much about cryptocurrencies.
I started to learn more about cryptocurrencies at the end of last year, a friend started an Ethereum mining business and when he told me about mining and blockchain technology I was totally fascinated, although I understood very little.
The first time I discovered NFTs was about four months ago, when I was reading an article about the infamous Beeple sale, after doing some research I found Cryptopunks, even so I did not understand how this type of technology allowed the commercialization of works of art.
Who are your favorite artists and collections?
I think this question is somewhat difficult to answer, there are many unique generative artists who have inspired me.
First of all I would like to highlight Eduardo MacEntyre (link to works), an incredible generative artist, who began with this movement in the 60s, and his works of art were recognized throughout the world, he was Argentine, he studied industrial design and continuously learned from his environment , is my biggest inspiration.
An artist that I also really like is Roni Kaufman (twitter and works). His work is unique, he can appreciate it all day, every day, without getting tired.
Another artist that I really like is Manuel Guerrero (Twitter). He works with experimental and generative typography and he is one of the current artists that inspires me the most.
Thanks to the environment of NFTs, I discovered many great generative artists, who like me, if it were not for this new technology, would hardly have been recognized as they are today!
I take this opportunity to comment that what we are experiencing with Nfts technology is something unique, something that artists would never have imagined.
I think my favorite collection is Art Blocks! As a generative artist, finding a collection with so many creations from so many talented artists is something unique.
Each creation is unique and the details of each work make Art Blocks special.
Extremely professional designs, perfection in every detail.
I also like browsing Foundation. The collections of photographs I have seen on the platform really amaze me.
Who are your favorite collectors?
I don't think I have a favorite collector for now, as I don't know many, I continually look at collections, but even so, I'm sure I still have many to discover.
Although they caught my attention, Andrew Merkatz (Twitter) and Wake (Mintable collection) their collections are excellent. I have yet to meet many more.
I take this opportunity to thank the collectors who gave me their support and trusted in my work, thank you all, you too Adam!
Would you share your collection with us?
Of course! My latest collection is called "Perseverance". It will be my first collection made specifically for the NFTs environment.
I have been working on this project for a long time, it is a generative art collection composed of 500 unique pieces, it will have 4 variations in its initial algorithm, sharing common patterns. Each piece will be unique, and will be classified according to its dimension, density, type, size of the margins and its most influential angles.
Could you share your creative process with us? What software tools do you use and what do you think can improve for NFTs?
My creative process is born from an idea, generally associated with trying to reproduce in my own way, the conceptual art of my environment, or something that many people go don’t notice.
To be honest, I'm not very good at freehand drawing, but I try to create an initial sketch to use as a guide in creating the algorithm.
Once I have the initial inspiration, and materialize my idea through a sketch, I start to create the algorithm. The process is different for each artist. In my case it usually takes several days to perfect the initial programming! When I start to get results that reflect my ideas, I begin to create several pieces and continually modify their patterns in order to achieve perfection in every detail.
When I started in generative art, I used a very basic program called "Context Free Art" because of its friendly programming environment for newcomers.
I occasionally used Processing until about a year ago, but then started using it frequently. Its interface is very dynamic, the possibilities are certainly endless, and its open source environment is great.
I am not the best person to present some idea of change in the design environment of NFTs, since I am still learning from the ecosystem. I believe that the community will organically improve the NFT environment because there are many committed people working hard to make NFTs better and better.
From my position as an artist, I hope to be able to contribute my art, my desire, my passion and, most importantly, the time, willing to share it with all of you.
Besides designing generative art, what do you like to do in Web3/DeFi?
Besides sharing my art, I enjoy browsing the Web3, discovering new artists, and learning from the community. I really like the unique diversity of profile photos, which identify the NFT environment. Pixelated characters, apes, cats, etc., this is unique and unexpected for me. I continually discover communities committed to their projects and I have never seen anything like this before.
I am very attracted to the idea of DeFi. It is something totally innovative, but I could not dedicate much time to it and it’s something I want to learn about soon.
What can you share and what gets you excited about The N Project and Nil DAO?The idea that I liked the most about N was knowing that the project is based on offering project construction possibilities to all committed people who want to contribute. The community is in control and the bureaucracy is not welcome.
As for Nil Dao, what I liked the most from the beginning is that it follows the ideals of the N Project (community control), as well as being a unique platform and pioneer in terms of marketing, curation and adoption of NFTs.
I believe that decentralized and well-designed projects have enormous potential and Nil is one of them.
What does the future look like for you?
My life has always been quite traditional, but since I met the world of NFTs, many paradigms in me have changed. I think the future is promising and I would like to build it with all of you, continue creating art, generate friendships, exchange knowledge, learn from each conversation, and surround myself with great people.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GiorgioBalbi
OpenSea: https://opensea.io/GiorgioBalbi
Website: https://linktr.ee/GiorgioArt
Cool to learn about all these different artists and explain ArtBlocks + Foundation. Nice to hear Balbi's story and thoughts on the industry from an artists perspective. I own CryptoVenetian and will be flying to NYC to mint a CryptoNewYork (an ArtBlocks project).