Coldie

In partnership with Seattle NFT Museum, pioneering crypto artist Coldie will return to Gazell.io, taking over the Project Space with his solo exhibition, Front Row 3D: Stereoscopic Concert Photography, having recently made notable advances in the traditional art world with record-breaking sales for his single edition NFTs.

During his previous residency at Gazell.io, Coldie sought to express the multifaceted nature of digital art and the wider crypto art space. More retrospectively, Front Row 3D: Stereoscopic Concert Photography invites the viewer to explore the development of stereoscopic three-dimensional (3-D) imaging and collage throughout his artistic career. The works will explore Coldie’s use of 3-D imaging across a variety of mediums, including lenticular prints, photographs, moving images, and virtual reality (VR). The displayed collection of images derives from a watershed moment for the artist at Coachella from 2009 to 2011, where he assumed the role of official 3-D photographer - a position contemporarily largely unheard of.

While much of Coldie’s early career involved commission-based graphic design projects, the eventual diversion of his focus was inevitable. Then, “the world wasn’t paying attention” to what he was doing, yet through relentlessly freelancing and experimenting during this time of relative anonymity, Coldie was able to crucially hone an evolving understanding of what “art culture means” to him.

Despite his design work, Coldie is firmly “not an illustrator”. Depth - an integral element to the artist’s collaged work - cannot be achieved through illustration, yet the layers created by 3-D photography facilitate the creation of such. Tracing his fascination with the obscure technology of 3-D photography and stereoscopic imaging, Coldie discusses his exposure to early examples of VR and 3-D film as a child. “My grandparents had something called a magic eye poster, which is a weird space shuttle trick of the eye. Each time I see these images, there was a level of creative shock.” His curiosity was innate and subconscious: “I wanted to pick it up and know how those things were made.”

The photographs of Front Row 3D: Stereoscopic Concert Photography depict an era before Coldie discovered blockchain art, prior to his seminal Decentral Eyes series, which personalised the disruptive force of crypto. It’s clear that Coldie’s glorification of blockchain celebrities began with the amplification of musicians during this period of his life, having photographed the likes of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the XX and Foals at various performances.

For Coldie, his lived experiences alongside an artistic career littered with experimentation have “culminated to what the work is now.” Grounded in both personal and material history, Front Row 3D: Stereoscopic Concert Photography represents how Coldie consistently looks to the future, ahead of the curve. He explains, “I was always thinking about the day I could look at my photos in full-colour VR. This show is a manifestation of a dream.”

Coldie is an award-winning mixed-media artist and one of the most collected crypto artists of our time whose stereoscopic 3D art has been featured in national juried art exhibitions, cryptocurrency conferences, and live auctions, including the recent Bonhams & SuperRare: CryptOGs, The Pioneers of NFT Art. He is an NFT early adopter (starting in 2018). In 2019, he was part of a group of early NFT artists who helped establish 10% secondary artist commissions that are now standard across NFT marketplaces. His blockchain themed artwork, including the ‘Decentral Eyes’ portrait series, gives a personalised visual representation of the disruptive industry.