Cornering The Market - March 31, 2023
NFT NYC approaching, recapping Cargo, sentiment switching and more | Cornering The Market #28
Welcome to your weekly generative art review!
For more context and images of beautiful art check out our weekly Youtube video of the episode and follow us on Twitter, but definitely read on, because this newsletter has exclusive stories and art!
Sentiment Check
Things have been…boring! Better than them being negative, that’s for sure. The markets have stagnated and this brings up an important truth - sentiment can never stay too extreme for too long in either direction.
Boring is better than bad, and we feel the negativity washing away from Gen art and digital art as a whole, we think it turns around soon!
When do you want to meet at NFT NYC?
Jared and P will be at NFT NYC April 12 - April 14, we’ve put up a quick poll on Twitter to figure out the best time for people to meet. Please respond if you will be around and let us know! This will be informal and a way to just catch up and chat art and markets! Poll here
Market Overview
The macro market was overall stable with BTC, ETH, and Tezos up slightly. We’re in a bit of a holding pattern as the economy waits to see if more banks will fail, and until then NFT art will likely stay low volume, but there are phenomenal deals still!
ETH gen art - Slow and steady. Volumes are down but blue chips are moving, with great deals on many grail pieces, like the Guide 1 Anticyclone shown above.
Tezos gen art - Tezos had a slower week than normal, but the silver lining is the market is identifying the blue chips like Dragons, RGB, Acequie, and others. Take a look at the fxhash marketplace to note collections likely to run out the gate.
Chromie Squiggle update - Another slow week as volume (271 ETH), sales (25) and floor price (10.5) were about the same as last week. Plenty of nice movement including some day 0s and low color spreads selling near the floor.
Friendship Bracelet (FB) update - Also down, FB are starting to prove they are a good pulse on the gen art market. Volumes were low, but floor price largely held.
Release Recaps
Cargo by Kim Asendorf - the latest Artblocks Curated release dropped on Weds Mar 29th from a well known artist. The 1000 piece collection had a rebate dutch auction, meaning everyone paid the final price which was 0.24 ETH. Since then the market has rallied to a current floor of 0.63.
This shows us that in the current state of the market artists with prior followings can sell out large collections as long as it’s cheap. People looking to invest would do well to wait for opportunities like this and pull the trigger if the pricing gets low enough.
Hello Modulo by Nat Sarkissian - another well known artist, Nat released this 400 piece collection on Verse on March 22 for only $70 each. The floor is now at $120 USD.
Another datapoint showing that artists with followings (Nat has a large one from Tezos) selling at low price points can be profitable for collectors
Generative art news
Our top story is about our NFT NYC meetup! Fill out our poll (click the attached tweet) if you will be in town as we arrange a time to meet you, our wonderful community.
Keeping on the NFT NYC theme, there are a multitude of wonderful events going on!
Definitely check out the Samsung x Artblocks event which will feature Friendship Bracelets and was famous last year for having beautiful art on a 30 foot digital screen!
Dmitri Cherniak and Helena Sarin are putting on an event around a book they have created together. This seems like a more intimate event where you could get to know the artists
Zancan has a physical exhibition in the Art Matr studios in Brooklyn. We think this will be a really cool event with only 100 spots!
In other news, Proof Collective is putting on an event that was curated by generative artist Emily Xie. The mechanics of the release are un-released (how many pieces, editions, price, who has access etc.), but check out their announcement as some of the top artists are involved.
Great art, great prices - beautiful art for ~$500 or less
Schwere See by flockaroo which topped the fxhash charts and has a beautiful aesthetic with waves on multi-colored backgrounds. At a 110 XTZ floor we think this is a great price of the art resonates with you.
Impasto by MJ Lindow | 0.16E floor - we’re big fans of MJ Lindow’s aesthetic and this collection has crept quite low
Ieva by Shvembldr | 0.24E floor - this collection was very popular over the summer but has lost steam, which is a great if you love the look of it as it has beautiful variety in color and composition
Steps by Johann | 0.05E floor - we wanted to include this one as it’s a bit different and very affordable, playing on simple combinations of shapes and colors
Attraction by Jon Vromans | 0.12E floor - We’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s truly beautiful, we don’t quite get why it hasn’t gone higher but we aren’t complaining!
Exciting upcoming drops
Agar by Emily Edelman mint passes release on April 4th with Bright Moments. Emily is a fantastic artist, curator, and all around a great human. She’s been on fire lately with her recent release Martin, in this one the collectors get to name all the palettes! A fun new mechanic, each mint pass will be assigned a palette and you can trade them before the reveal on April 11th.
Bauhausstadt by Andrew Strauss - This was supposed to release today, but came out a bit early yesterday (we need better communication artists!!). We wanted to still mention it because we love the art and at a 38 xtz floor relative to the mint price of 20 xtz it hasn’t run too far yet
Upstate Summer by Lovid | April 5th 1pm EST | 3 pieces | $890 each | Verse - great artist, gorgeous work with motion, and well priced for only 3 pieces
ilumz by Wolffia Inc & Motus Art | April 10th 1pm EST | 200 pieces | Dutch Auction starting at 4E | Artblocks Presents - interesting and different art with a multimedia focus
Artists to highlight
[GenArt] Kim Asendorf is the theme for today! Kim created a new type of animated art called Pixel Sorting, which you likely saw in the most recent Artblocks Curated release Cargo. Kim is a name you should know given his unique style and strong following.
[GenArt] We also wanted to highlight another household name, Michael Zancan. The top selling artist on Fxhash is relatively unknown in the ETH side despite his stunning art, kind demeanor, and engagement with collectors. Definitely one to have on your radar if you don’t already.
[AI] Ira Greenberg is a wonderful AI artist as well as the Co-founder of Emergent Properties, a Tezos based long form AI platform, where he just released a project called Beasts. We love to see the builder / artist combo!
Art To Watch
Monogrid, the first project by Kim Asendorf is a genre-defining one as it kicked off our obsession with Pixel Sorting, the technique created and popularized by Kim. These are OG grails and mesmerizing. As Kim continues to be in the limelight (especially with Bright Moments Tokyo coming up), this is one to keep an eye on.
[GenArt] Garden, Monoliths by Zancan - these are the Fidenzas of fxhash, the top selling collection with the highest floor and considered grails of the ecosystem. There are only 255 of these and many are locked up, worth keeping an eye on as Zancan also gets more exposure at Bright Moments Tokyo.
[AI] Braindrops art - all of the braindrops collections have retraced quite a bit as the AI art narrative lost some steam. There is still value here though, and we think it’s worth watching these collections as they may signal when AI is about to come back around
Art Charts
Strands of Solitude by William Mapan - Our favorite artist’s most recent project has retraced all the way from a floor of 6 down to 2.83 after minting out at 2E. We still love this project but bring it up to show that when things go parabolic they almost always have a retrace. Other recent examples are Gazers (35 —> 15E floor - now 21), The Harvest (11 —> 4E), and Fontana (11 —> 3E)
QWERTY by Tara Donovan - the floor on this has dipped below 0.5E, but there is strong support and it’s thickening in the 0.6-0.9 range, and when we see floors thicken we know there are nicer pieces priced in the bottom range!
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