Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have transformed the art world by introducing human-computer interaction. Generative art requires collaboration between an artist and an autonomous system – typically an algorithm coded by the artist or a software developer collaborator.

Each piece of generative art adds something unique, as no two generative art pieces are the same. There is a degree of randomness to each piece, which adds to a generative artist’s talent in achieving a vision through algorithms. Below are 10 of the top generative artists in the NFT space.

1. Erick Calderon (aka Snowfro)

Founder of Art Blocks and Artist of Chromie Squiggle

Erick Calderon, also known as Snowfro online, is a Houston-based artist who likes to work with both physical and digital media, including ceramics, 3D blocks, LED art, and digital art. He is well-known for his generative art NFT project, Chromie Squiggle. The 10,000 piece NFT collection features a squiggle per piece. Each squiggle has unique attributes pertaining to its start and end color, color spread and direction, height, segments, and steps between segments. The most expensive Chromie Squiggle is #3784, which resold for 750 ETH, or $2.44 million.

Erick also founded Art Blocks, the first decentralized platform for creating and showcasing generative art pieces. Art Blocks enables artists to upload code to a smart contract. Chromie Squiggle was the first project to be released on Art Blocks.

2. Tyler Hobbs

Creator of Fidenza

Based in Austin, Texas, Tyler Hobbs is a visual artist known for 999 piece NFT collection, Fidenza. Tyler creates custom algorithms to generate digital art in a style that balances the cold, strict structure that computers are associated with and the natural, daily chaos of everyday life.

Fidenzas are based on a flow field algorithm to create the neighboring curves that never overlap. Tyler’s success with Fidenza has led to his art to be showcased on Art Blocks, the first platform dedicated to generative content. The current floor price for Findenza is 69.69 ETH, or approximately $190K.

3. Ben Kovach

Edifice

Based in Burlington, Vermont, Ben Kovach has been creating “procedurally generated artwork” since 2017. Ben was inspired by combining code with his manual art career as a way to reduce tedium and save his stylistic choices for future reuse.

Ben is best known for his generative art NFT collection Edifice. Edifice consists of 976 pieces that explore building structures being eroded away under various conditions and reconceptualized and reconstructed. Each image is progressively constructed in front of the viewer’s eyes to show every step of the process. Edifice #834, picture above, last sold for 5.54 ETH, or $14.6K.

4. Ezra Miller

Solvency

Ezra Miller is a digital artist, designer, and developer. Ezra has an extensive background collaborating with electronic musicians as an art director, web developer, and visual jockey to create real-time generative art and immersive experiences. He has collaborated with brands such as Balenciaga, Alexander Wang, and Adidas.

Solvency is a 500 piece limited edition NFT series of WebFL artworks created by Ezra Miller. Each generative NFT’s attributes are determined by using a “deterministic algorithm seeded with the hash of the token.”

5. Dmitri Cherniak

Ringers

   

Dmitri Cherniak is a Canadian artist based in New York City and a board member of the Art Blocks Curation Board. As a board member, Dimitri is part of the integral team that selects projects to be included in the official Art Blocks Curated Collection. As an artist, he uses automation as his primary medium and is most noted for his work with Ringers.

Ringers is a 1,000 piece generative art NFT collection of automatically generated “strings and pegs.” There are almost an infinite number of combinations for a string to be wrapped around a set of pegs. Ringer’s features variations in “peg count, sizing, layout, wrap orientation” and pops of color. Ringers #109, pictured above, is one of the most expensive Art Blocks projects sold, with the initial seller buying the NFT for $220 and making a return of 3.2M% in 6 months, according to Crypto Times.

6. Matt Kane

Gazers

Matt Kane, a Chicago native, began his career as a painter of oils and transitioned to becoming a “painter of code” after becoming a web developer. Matt likes to create generative art in the same way as he treated painting physical art: careful prep and interaction throughout each step. Matt spends 12+ hours on each piece as he makes thousands of tweaks to design variables within his code to mimic historical aesthetics through geometry.

Gazers is a 1,000 piece NFT collection that focuses on the moon. On the surface, Gazers may act as a lunar calendar as each piece depicts a moon phase. However, Gazers aims to cultivate the appreciation of our changing perceptions of time, astronomy, color theory, generative art, and our collective goals in crypto. Gazers #788, pictured above, recently sold for 14.6 ETH, or $40K on February 3, 2022.

7. Kjetil Golid

Archetype

Kjetil Golid is a Norwegian generative artist and system developer. His generative art projects are inspired by the question “What would it look like if…” leaving an algorithm to end the sentence “with a visual translation.”

Archetype is a 600 piece NFT collection that explores “the use of repetition as a counterweight to unruly, random structures.” As of February 20, 2022, the most expensive Archetype sold was Archetype #109 for $42.9K on February 14, 2022.

8. Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez

entretiempos

Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez is yet another generative artist that is a multitalented creative in the worlds of business, artistic expression, and literacy. Most known for his generative art in the NFT world, Marcelo pushes to explore how machines can produce artistic pieces that evoke emotions within humans. Sometimes, the pieces are accompanied with music composed and recorded by Marcelo.

Marcelo’s most famous NFT collection, entretiempos, consists of 1,000 pieces. It explores the benchmarks in time we choose to define and perceive our lives from against the infinite, scattered time scales of our entire lives. entretiempos #370, pictured above, has a current bid price of 20 ETH, or $54K.

9. Kaleb Johnston

Wavelength

Kaleb Johnston is a 20-year-old New Zealand based outdoor photographer and generative artist. His generative art work is centered around the human brain and its cognitive abilities. Kaleb is intrigued with using code to bring the gap between humans and AI.

His most notable NFT work, a collection titled Wavelength, is inspired by the brain’s electrical activity. For this 1.1K piece collection, the current floor price sits at 1.42 ETH, or approximately $2.7K.

10. Arihz

Avid Lines, Pulsquares, Framergence

 

The anonymous artist who goes by the pseudonym “Arihz” is an accomplished generative artist that has too many well-known NFT collections to not include on this list. While little is known about the man behind Arihz, he is an anonymous Brazilian computer scientist who enjoys fractals, complex systems, and programming languages.

Three of his biggest generative art collections are Avid Lines, Pulsquares, and Framergence. Each collection is very unique in its artistic style, yet all three rely on the mathematical exploration of shapes.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Elizabeth Sun is a contributor to Identity Review from the University of Southern California. Do you have information to share with Identity Review? Email us at press@identityreview.com. Find us on Twitter.

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