VAULTED Art Collector Profile #6 - Darius
Vaulted is a series where prominent collectors in the Tezos ecosystem are interviewed and highlighted.
Vaulted #6 with collector Darius - @diusxx
“Truly prolific experimentation, based on a foundation of artistic competition and support that I have only ever seen at the beginning of what usually becomes a movement. And movements are created by a collective, mutual energy. Not money or it’s pursuit.”
Aleksandra: How did you discover your passion for collecting, where did it all begin?
Darius: I've been an art collector for over 20 years starting around 2001 when I walked into a gallery with an artist friend of mine and with one of my first paycheques, purchased a small, framed painting of an old woman in Morocco selling herbs and spices in a bazaar. A beautifully simple figurative work that I eventually gifted to a family member but, ever since, I have been an avid collector of art of all kinds. First edition books, sculpture, photography etc. And since 2020, digital art.
If Graffiti Changed Anything It Would Be Illegal © Banksy 2011
Can you share a story about acquiring one of your favorite pieces or any interesting moment in your collecting journey?
Darius: Not a collected work, but a commission. Having been born and raised in London, and attending an arts school for the majority of my youth, art and street art in particular have been a huge influence. Most of my friends and colleagues are artists and I vividly remember when Banksy appeared in 2001/2. The excitement and catalyst he inspired in almost everyone at the time was palpable. It is for this reason that, in 2003 I started to actively research emerging street artists. One of the first artworks I ever commissioned was a graffiti piece by an unamed street artist called "Muse" which, for a time became a mural.
What sets Art on Tezos apart in your eyes compared to other NFT ecosystems?
Darius: Truly prolific experimentation, based on a foundation of artistic competition and support that I have only ever seen at the beginning of what usually becomes a movement. And movements are created by a collective, mutual energy. Not money or it's pursuit.
On the one hand, a lack of scarcity that leads to a greater volume of open manifestation and play, alongside the highest level of singular work conveyed for what they are, the creators total expression.
It has an artists for artist ethos. Making work for themselves and other artists within the community rather than pandering to market trends or collector tastes/bias. A grassroots craft-based culture that has continually evolved and maintained its sincerity, without the need for tasteless marketing ploys presenting the illusion of being "cool" or "underground".
Difficult recovery by Ilya Bliznets
Who are your three favorite artists/artworks on Tezos from your collection, and what makes their work stand out to you?
Darius: Extremely difficult question but I'll attempt an answer.
Goldcat
There isn't much to add that hasn't already been said about Cat's work. When I first came across her art it honestly hit me like a train. I'm drawn to a few things in art. Irony, metaphor, humour, but mostly it's emotion that will leave the most impact. In her skill you will find these emotions expertly conceived and delivered.
Cat's work BLEEDS. It speaks in almost every stroke to our most fundamental feelings. And as with all things, feelings are layered. Contradictory yet sympathetic. Colours swimming away and dancing together. Brushstrokes as buttress and cloud. Evoking the most complex figures and ideas with the most deceptively simple of techniques, I consider Goldcat a master.
Ilya Bliznets
One of the most intriguing and impenetrable of artists, I'm extremely proud to call Ilya a friend and client.
I could speak of his talent (peerless), or his style (singular) but instead I'll speak of his work. Ilya reflects the magical and surreal relationship between our cultivated identities, childhood fantasies and objective reality. Inspired by the techniques of classical painting and the iconography of Eastern Europe, his art disjoints from time, space and place. Screams of colour, de-atomised objects, streaked and smeared faces that exist in his universe call to the splits in the collective personality of our species. It is here that we find the familiar longing of a past falsely remembered and the bleakness of a future opaque and deconstructed. It is a truly remarkable feat that no matter what he creates, we can always find ourselves there.
Khashayar Sharifaee
As a child of an Iranian father, Khashayar's work delicately and truthfully captures the country of my early childhood.
Somewhere In Time by Khashayar Sharifaee
Through their eyes, one glides from observer to participant, witnessing scenes from a home I have been severed from. A lost sanctuary that has endured war, revolution and ongoing civil unrest since my departure. The majesty of an ancient land and people reflected in the eyes of the audience. The grit and fine layer of dust on the lens speaks to the endurance and wounded humanity that is emoted throughout the everyday lives, landscapes and objects Sharifaee memorialises. Treasures of an Iran that exists between history, memory and present day.
3 artists to keep eye on - Which three emerging artists on Tezos do you think are worth keeping an eye on, and why?
Darius: Bibi, Nipetrov and Kopfgestaltung
Bibi
An artist I love that captures the exuberant contradictions of the human experience through unfettered imagination and flirty subversiveness: “...my art is where childlike wonderment meets adult responsibilities."
Nipetrov
Suspended in an atmosphere of static are the pixelated apparitions of an otherworldly landscape rendered through video. Sculptures and forms that pierce, intersect, cut and grace the moving image like remnants of future memories.
Kopfgestaltung
Masterfully crafted audio-visual explorations of dark and brutalist worlds. Alien structures, surfaces and patterns - different, but uncomfortably familiar. Cinematic, cerebral, ravishing and violent. Echoes of Giger.
Baumgeist. (still) by Kopfgestaltung