Prints of an Artist.
How Solos is creating a new future for traditional Artists in the digital realm
Solos are generated digital paintings drawn from the archive of the artist, Jeremiah Palecek. Each Solos painting is a kind of ‘automatic collage’, each element drawn from some work in Jeremiah’s vast collection of paintings done over the years, selected in a pseudo-random fashion, taking the origin of the purchasers' transaction into account.
Each is unique. None of them have ever existed before, and over 2,000 of them sold in a matter of hours of being announced.
The thing which makes Solos so radical, and magical, is that each Solos looks as if Jeremiah had painted it himself. Each has his themes, his inspirations, his perspective. Yet, he didn’t paint them, and there’s no AI here, no GAN networks, no rendering.
Solos break ground by combining the techniques that artists have worked with for centuries: painting, collage, composition, layering, to create something truly new: Prints of an Artist, not just his work. The vision of the artist themselves, captured in a way that lets anyone own a unique Jeremiah Palecek, without, actually, ever owning a painting
The leap from the canvas to digital for artists is a challenging one. One that Jeremiah detailed in his Medium post, My Muses aren’t imaginary. Most artists go the poster route: take a painting, print a hundred copies, sell for $50 a pop. Many NFT’s from artists are much of the same, take a work, mint and NFT, make 100 versions. Call it a day.
But the result isn’t the same. Posters try to mimic the experience of owning a work of art while conveying upon the possessor, none of the magic of having the “real thing”.
What Solos has done is very different. Solos has made the act of possessing a digital replica of the art, a unique piece of art itself. Jeremiah has painted hundreds of canvases in the past decades and for admirers, many of them are in private collections locked away.
With Solos, Jeremiah offers collectors the opportunity to own a work that he could have painted but hasn’t. Solos suggests a future for traditional painters looking to make the leap into the digital realm in a way that doesn’t cheapen the physical element, yet allows artists to capture the enthusiasm of their collector base. Imagine a gallery showing Jeremiah'swork, where every guest could purchase their own, unique, print- every bit as beautiful and detailed as an original work, except, of course, the original work, does not exist. Collectors can own an impression of the artist, possibly even as valuable as the tangible artwork itself.
In the past two weeks, the team behind Solos has been inundated by requests from painters eager to understand the process. Solos has also been trail-blazing in other ways as well. The Solos community of collectors hold voting tokens that allow it to decide on different aspects of the project, creating a forum in which the collectors communicate with artist and vice versa. Recently a MultiSig has been set up, stocked with fifty thousand Solos ERC20 tokens to represent a grants committee, with a board chosen by a governance poll.
With nearly 3000 portraits sold, the inaugural edition, Saturnalia, is coming to a close, to be followed by Evolution, Edition #2, also by Jeremiah. It’s early days for Solos and Digital art, but exciting times lay ahead.
Purchase existing Solos at Rarible, or mint your own at www.solos.so.
To learn more about Solos, contact us.
