HomeNFT"2121", Italy's first museum exhibition on Crypto Art opens alongside masterpieces from...

“2121”, Italy’s first museum exhibition on Crypto Art opens alongside masterpieces from the past

It is called “2121”, the first major NFT museum exhibition in Italy, in honour of the one-hundredth anniversary of the year that saw crypto art explode on a global scale, bringing it to the attention of the general public.

2121, crypto art on display in Milan

From 23 November to 6 February 2022, DART Dynamic Art Museum, an innovative museum project conceived by Piergiulio Lanza and architect Riccardo Manfrin, and WRONG THEORY, the first real-life production of the NFT world, formed by the union of Alessandro Brunello (Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the Bibipom. com), Alan Tonetti (Founder and CEO of TaoDust) and Serena Tabacchi (Director of MoCDA, Museum of Contemporary Digital Art), have brought the largest collection of NFT works to the historic spaces of Milan’s Museo della Permanente.

The artists include blue chips such as Beeple, XCopy, Pak, Coldie, Trevor Jones, Hackatao and Matt Kane, the so-called OG (acronym for Old Gangster, i.e. the pioneers of the Crypto revolution), alongside a select group of artists from all over the world, from Germany’s Bakaarts to Norway’s Henrik Huldalen, from the Englishman Billelis to the Frenchmen Alotta Money and Raphael Lacoste, from the Dutchman Daniel Martin to the Australian Nate Hill, as well as a large Italian group including Dangiuz, Skygolpe, Fabio Giampietro, Federico Clapis, Annibale Siconolfi, Dot Pigeon, Giovanni Motta, Alessandro Bavari, Mattia Cuttini, Alessio De Vecchi and many others. The exhibition also features stellar collectibles such as Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, which have become status symbols for collectors and icons for the crypto community.

2121 exhibition
2121 exhibition

Old Masters alongside NFTs

To underline the scale of the event, along with the “2121” exhibition, DART also organised a large exhibition of Old Masters, entitled “Masterpieces from Private Collections”, with works by Sebastiano Ricci, Caravaggio, Guercino and Velázquez, among others. The idea is to establish a sort of continuity between past and present, rather than to emphasise the technological discontinuity between physical art and crypto art.

And while it is true that creativity does not depend on the medium used, there is no doubt that the blockchain and NFT revolution has brought out a gigantic artistic potential, a new scene that has brought into the limelight a large number of new artists who have worked in the film, video game or advertising industries and who can now finally express themselves outside of any commercial commitment.

Alongside artists from the traditional art system, there are many self-taught and in particular many conceptual artists, art directors, web designers, game designers and matt painters who have joined forces during the pandemic to develop new systems to give their digital art form a commercial dimension that was previously almost non-existent.

NFT exhibition in Milan

Crypto art enters art history

The exhibition catalogue, the first editorial product of its kind dedicated to NFTs, represents the entry of crypto art into art history.

The crypto artists represented here, creators of a revolution that was facilitated by the opening of the first platforms dedicated to the sale of NFT digital art, which by means of the “minting” function made it possible to insert dematerialized works into the blockchain, are found for the first time within the walls of the Permanente in Milan, a museum that in the past has promoted and acknowledged other important artistic currents.

The “2121” exhibition is the most far-reaching of those recently inaugurated in Europe and, with over 60 artists, the most representative of the international crypto scene. It is the first step on a path that promises to bring together the younger generation and the traditionally interested public, but it is also a sort of baptism by fire to present what will probably be the dominant art form of the decades to come.

Artists List

KEVIN ABOSH . AEFORIA . LUCAS AGUIRRE . MARCELLO BALDARI . ALOTTA MONEY . ALESSANDRO BAVARI . BAKAARTS . BEEPLE . BILLELIS . ANDREA BONACETO . BORED APE YACHT CLUB . GARY CARTLIDGE . ANDREA CHIAMPO . FEDERICO CLAPIS . COLDIE . ETIENNE CRAUSS . SOFIA CRESPO . CRYPTOPUNKS . MATTIA CUTTINI . DANGIUZ . ALESSIO DE VECCHI . DIEWITHTHEMOSTLIKES . DONNOH . DOTPIGEON . JESSE DRAXLER . IDIL DURSUN . JAN HAKON ERICHSEN . ESKALATOR . FRENETIK VOID . FABIO GIAMPIETRO . GIANT SWAN . MATTIA GIORDANO . GMUNK . RAF GRASSEETTI . GREBENSHYO . HACKATAO . HEXERACT . JANNE . TREVOR JONES . MATT KANE . RAPHAEL LACOSTE . GIUSEPPE LO SCHIAVO . LUSHSUX . MAD MARACA . DANIEL MARTIN . TIM MAXWELL . MISS AL SIMPSON . GIOVANNI MOTTA . NATE HILL . NEUROCOLOR . PAK . SANTIAGO PANI . DAVIDE PETRAROLI . RAREPEPE . OVECK REYES . ROBNESS . ANNIBALE SICONOLFI . SINCLAIR . SIX N. FIVE . SKYGOLPE . FABIANO SPEZIARI . THE SARAH SHOW . THOMAS STROKES III . TOOMUCHLAG . HENRIK ULDALEN . PINDAR VAN ARMAN . VEXX . JONATHAN WOLFE . XCOPY . XSULLO . ZHUK . ONDREJ ZUNKA

“2121” and “MASTERPIECES FROM PRIVATE COLLECTIONS”

Museo della Permanente

Via Filippo Turati, 34, 20121 Milan

18 Nov 2021 – 6 Feb 2022

Mon – Fri: 10-19

Sat – Sun: 11-19

Full Prize Ticket: 10 euro

Discount Ticket: 6 euro

six-month DART card valid for unlimited admission to all exhibitions: 15 euro

 

INFO

www.dartmilano.com 

[email protected]

+39 02 94382885

PRESS OFFICE

Barbieri & Ridet [email protected] tel +39 02 58328232

Ivan Quaroni
Ivan Quaroni
Graduated with honours in Modern Literature at the State University of Milan. Critic, curator and journalist, he has written for the magazines Flash Art, Arte and Arte in. He has curated numerous exhibitions in public spaces and private galleries and has published the books Laboratorio Italia. "Nuove tendenze in pittura" (New trends in painting) (2008, Johan & Levi), Italian Newbrow (2010, Giancarlo Politi) and Beautiful Dreamers. Il nuovo sogno americano tra Lowbrow Art e Pop Surrealism (The new American dream amidst Lowbrow Art and Pop Surrealism, 2017, Falsopiano). He teaches History of Contemporary Art at the Accademia di Belle Arti Aldo Galli in Como and Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at the IED - Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan.
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