As one enters the Bengaluru outlet of restaurant and café chain, Social, s/he is struck by the image of a body stuck in a vase, with flowers blooming out of it. On another wall is a black and white image of a chopped-up body—the eyes in the severed head framed by long black hair stare straight at the viewer—on a fully laid table. Yet another image shows a woman with a flaming mane of orange hair surrounded by a tropical jungle-of-sorts. Beside the artworks, there is graffiti on the wall—‘Be the NFT you want to collect’—at India’s first exclusive physical gallery for NFT art, which opened last month.
The gallery has digitised works by 13 artists, such as Akhil Thampuran, Dr. Wafu, Nishita Jain, Trupty Somaiah, Simran Wahan, The Wabi Sabi Project, and more, in this exhibition titled Welcome to Web 3: The Genesis. Some are AI-based art or in the form of video. For example, Amoolya Bhat’s Eden is an immersive piece that invites the viewer to delve into the many layers of the artwork in grey and white, which shows a woman with closed eyes surrounded by flowers. “Humans are complex beings made of layers of thoughts and emotions that live and take root inside us. Beauty is often what a person is made of, more than what we see on the surface. Peeling back these layers of defences and emotions reveals to us our core—our most vulnerable and innermost selves; the place where we find our calm, where we find our Eden,” says Bhat.
Beatboxer and performing artist Abhishek ‘AB Verse’ Bhaskar’s ‘metavoice NFT’ allows people to “see the human voice”. The artist, who uses generative AI for his NFT artworks, says, “I want people to listen to sound using their eyes. Metavoice started off as a limited-edition artwork and has now evolved into a brand of its own.”
Though NFT has taken a hit in the last year, the organisers of the ongoing show in Bengaluru are sure that a web3 show in the ‘Silicon Valley of India’ will only be a win-win situation.“We wanted to be a forerunner in the space where we could give a platform to artists to display their art. As a group we want to adopt NFT output and the blockchain in whatever way we can,” says Ranveer Sabhani, Business Head-South, Impresario Handmade Restaurants.
A monthly roller deck of artists will be showcased at the café, which would also conduct sessions and masterclasses for novices who would like to understand the web3 space. “For the debut show, we are presenting local artists with diversely different styles, mediums and genres ranging from illustration, 3D, and generative art to beatboxing and poetry. We want to show viewers the range of possibilities that exist for creators in web3,” says curator Angad B Sodhi. The displayed artworks are available for sale on the blockchain through platforms of the artists’ preference.