With the month of August already half past, Decentraland’s third annual Metaverse Art Week is just around the corner! The five day event will be live in Decentraland’s art districts from August 24-28. Inspired by this year’s Venice Biennale Arte, the theme for Metaverse Art Week 2022 is: The World is Made of Code. Like the patterns, sequences, and formulas that make up the natural world, code is elemental in a virtual world like Decentraland.
Metaverse Art Week 2022 will explore how the human spirit is hardwired to elicit an emotional response when presented with art inspired by the mathematical designs present in nature as well as how metaverse technology is pushing the boundaries of programmatic art and redefining what an immersive experience is. The event is designed to showcase the latest technological innovations in digital art and design development through an extensive virtual world fair that brings the contemporary art world into further alignment with the emerging world of Web3.
“Metaverse Art Week 2022 is coming at a pivotal moment for the larger adoption of Web3 technology and decisions about our digital reality. We believe that the future of the internet should be built by decentralized communities who do not seek to profit off of user data, imagination, or creativity,” said the Decentraland Foundation’s Creative Director, Sam Hamilton. “This year’s Art Week will be a love letter to what the next generation of artists are doing in the metaverse.”
The event will consist of immersive art installations, performance and conceptual art productions, numerous NFT exhibitions unlike anything ever seen before, panel talks, and more. The main attractions will be located in Decentraland’s art neighborhoods, Soho Plaza (aka Art Plaza for the next year) which will be transformed into an open air museum/gravity-defying sculpture garden for the event as well as the adjacent Voltaire Art District, which will host a multitude of community-designed and art collective gallery exhibitions and panel talks.
To stay on top of all of Metaverse Art Week’s biggest events and exhibitions, check out the art celebration’s dedicated tab at the top of Decentraland’s event page which will go live in the days before Art Week begins.
To maintain the mystery of Metaverse Art Week’s art and to celebrate the advancements in AI-generated art, this Metaverse Art Week overview uses only AI-generated images to represent the event’s highlights. Enjoy the following micro exhibition of diverse AI art as we dive into some of Metaverse Art Week 2022’s biggest attractions.
Audio Art Tour
For the first time ever, this year’s Metaverse Art Week will feature a curated, audio-guided art walk that will lead visitors past some of the event’s most interesting exhibitions. Upon arrival in the Metaverse Art Week Welcome Area, look around for a dispenser. It will provide you with a pair of headphones that will enable you to hear the Audio Tour once you put them on your avatar via your Backpack. From the Welcome Area you will see signs guiding you to the first of 25 Art Week hotspots. Once you walk close enough to a hotspot, you should hear the audio guide’s description of the art piece or exhibition in question. Be sure to grab your headphones for the best Art Week experience!
Frida Kahlo Family’s Red House
In collaboration with Ezel.Life, Frida Kahlo’s family will celebrate Metaverse Art Week with the launch of a permanent Decentraland installation, the Frida Kahlo Family Red House. The structure will provide an immersive experience showcasing the first-half of Frida’s exceptional life as well as never-before-seen artwork from the artist.
Artnet
Artnet, one of the biggest art communities online founded over 30 years ago as the first art platform online in the world, will explore the idea of the metaverse through performance art, live-poetry, and AI art during Metaverse Art Week. In collaboration with many renowned artists, various art experiences will happen across different venues during the week. An auditorium will host panel discussions around the future of art and technology. Look out for limited artist Wearables that will be given away throughout the event.
Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s will celebrate Metaverse Art Week with the opening of multiple new art collaborations, including the first jewelry sculpture in the metaverse with Metagolden. Throughout Art Week they will also display their permanent collection.
“Sotheby’s held its first sales dedicated to NFTs and digital art just 18 months ago. In that time, we have been at the center of some of the most historic moments for digital art – from achieving record results for iconic projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, to devising innovative ways to exhibit digital art, not only in our physical galleries globally, but also in Decentraland,” said Michael Bouhanna, Vice-President of Sotheby’s. “We were the first—and are still the only—auction house to have built a dedicated virtual gallery. Our Decentraland space has allowed us to curate creative and thoughtful exhibitions of both digital art and a number of physical works of art too, such as Sandro Botticelli’s ‘The Man of Sorrows’, for which we transformed one of the galleries into an immersive cathedral-inspired space.”
UXart Lab
UXart Lab will present internationally recognized Latin American masters of the 1960s, such as Marta Minujín, Gyula Kosice, Eduardo Mac Entyre, Miguel Ángel Vidal, Eduardo Rodriguez, Rogelio Polesello and Alberto Echegaray Guevara. which represent the best of kinetic art, pop art and Crypto art in the region. Currently some are exhibited at the Venice Biennale with UXart and show the global impact and decentralizing power that crypto art brings to society.
Pop!Wall
International pop artist Burton Morris, in collaboration with House of Tang, will install Pop!Wall, a 3D interactive art wall resembling Morris’ notorious popcorn kernel artwork for the occasion of Metaverse Art Week. The kernel represents “the seed of a new idea,” a perfect graphic image to represent the explosive creativity and innovation brimming from Web3’s culture of co-creation. Pop!Wall will be located in Soho Plaza, and offers a tempting challenge to anyone who tries to climb the structure and prove their metaverse aptitude through elite parkour skills. If you reach the top, you’ll be rewarded with a free pair of Pop!Soles, Morris’ first NFT sneaker, facilitated by Banquet Labs.
Cash Labs Gallery
Cash Labs Gallery will launch its permanent collection during Metaverse Art Week, featuring different shows on each of its four floors. The first floor will consist of pieces curated under the theme From Physical to Digital, highlighting NFT artists including Damien Hirst, Laurel Charleston, Justin Aversano, Kenny Schacter, David Henry Nobody Jr., and others. The second floor’s theme, Art for the Metaverse, highlights the digitally native art practices of Krista Kim, Bryan Brinkman, IX Shells, David Bianchi, and more. The third floor will feature a takeover by SHOWstudio and will showcase Nick Knight’s first NFT collection.
Located in the Cash Labs Gallery, Estée Lauder will continue to innovate at the intersection of beauty, art, and technology for the occasion of Metaverse Art Week with an exclusive POAP experience designed by Dr. Alex Box, renowned identity designer and pioneer of Beauty Futurism. Inspired by the legacy of visionary founder, Mrs. Estée Lauder, the POAP by Box will be available for attendees to collect and garner access to future Web3 activations from the Estée Lauder brand.
Art Plaza’s Outdoor Sculpture Garden
On behalf of the Decentraland Foundation, over a dozen artists will exhibit their work in the outdoor sculpture garden of Art/Soho Plaza. The exhibition will feature some of the largest scale and highest fidelity works ever seen in Decentraland. Curator David Cash has brought this year’s theme, The World is Made of Code, to life with 3D sculptures and video works by industry leaders including Krista Kim, legendary image-maker Nick Knight, and Lady Gaga’s creative Director Nicola Formichetti, amongst others. These pieces will be exhibited alongside works from a number of the event’s featured galleries, including Artnet and Sotheby’s. Explore the outdoor sculpture garden to see the full potential of 3D art in Decentraland and witness levels of creativity that extend beyond the confines of reality into the realm of the surreal.
Spatial
In one of the first cross-metaverse collaborations, Spatial will partner with Decentraland in globally supporting & lifting the voices of artists during Metaverse Art Week. Spatial has also partnered with Metamundo Studio to host events in the Luis Fern gallery which you will be able to visit in both Spatial and Decentraland.
Known Origin
Known Origin will present a set of activations in their own gallery, including “Crypto Winter,” an amusing installation that reflects the vulnerability of the crypto market, as well as a curated exhibition and Art Week Open Party.
Rarible
A Rarible co-curated exhibition with the Decentraland Foundation will take place in the magnificent beehive room, with Jeff Sambuco, Custom Horror, Dijiact, MazinFlow, and other creators. The sight won’t be one you can miss.
OpenSea
Using an infinite engine, OpenSea will present a collection that will showcase a unique infinite gallery that will portray every single NFT available on OpenSea.
Makers Place
The Makers Place Gallery has commissioned renowned artist, Alan Bolton to adapt his art to the Plaza for the occasion of Metaverse Art Week. During the event they will showcase THE SUCCESSOR, part of the artist’s REBIRTH Collection as well as additional specially curated gallery exhibitions.
SuperRare Labs
SuperRare Labs will also be participating in Metaverse Art Week with an unedited exhibition in their Voltaire District, so don’t forget to add it to your list of things to see!
Gavin Shapiro
Artist Gavin Shapiro will celebrate Metaverse Art Week with the debut of his Fibonacci piece, inspired by fractals and other patterns that emerge in nature, created in collaboration with Arben Vllasaliu.
Ukrainian Meta History Museum of War
The Crypto Valley NFT Gallery will showcase the Ukrainian Meta History Museum of War during Metaverse Art Week. Meta History is the largest Ukrainian charitable NFT project to date and its main mission is to document the truth about the events happening in Ukraine in the language of art and leave it forever imprinted on the blockchain.
Decentraland Community Activations
Throughout Metaverse Art Week’s venue, many different community-submitted artworks will be displayed as well as submissions from members of the Decentraland Foundation. Keep your eye out for all their unique pieces. Some specific things to look out for are: a playful installation from Burton Morris x Doll House; a Cryptoarg exhibition in Art Plaza; a series of immersive metaverse installations composed by “The Tower Labyrinth’’ and “The Pyramid Labyrinth” presented by the Vuelta Art Collective; and the data art installations of Tauromaquia, an interactive data sculpture inspired by a bull-fighting scene, which is deformed by the real time price changes of the top 100 crypto coins. Another community-driven initiative to visit is Indie Village, a newly built artist’s neighborhood in Decentraland for independent artists and creators to collaborate on interdisciplinary art. They will have curated artwork by Studio As We Are, Vueltta, Infinite Objects, CADAF, Breezy Art, theVERSEverse, and many others on display for the event.
Portion
Portion is adapting their NFT NYC immersive video projection for the Metaverse Art Week. Created by The Martini Police, an art duo founded by StillmanVisual & iamyonson, “TEMPERAMENTS” is an eight-piece collection that was exhibited at LUME Studios for NFT NYC 2022. The artwork embodies the four temperaments of nature and soul.
Panel Talks
And of course, Metaverse Art Week wouldn’t be a Decentraland platform-wide event without a curated collection of panel talks, round table discussions, and Twitter Spaces hosted by thought leaders and enthusiasts in the Web3 and art worlds. Be sure to keep a close eye on Metaverse Art Week’s dedicated event page as well as Decentraland’s Twitter to stay on top of all the discussions that will be happening throughout the event.