Seattle-based Filipino artist is unveiling pop culture NFT art in Berlin solo show
Photos from skyenicolas/Instagram
Van Gogh once said that every artist dips their brush into their souls and “paints his own nature into his pictures,” and with nostalgia as the quintessence of Filipino artist Skye Nicolas’ artwork, NFT has turned into a beautifully crafted piece with a soul.
Nicolas, a Seattle-based post-conceptual artist, will be rolling out the carpet for QUINTESSENCE — a digital spectacle showcasing a symphony of pixels transformed into 100 vibrant NFT art masterpieces.
Presented by EXPANDED.ART, Nicolas will have his first ever solo show in an art gallery in Berlin. If you’re new to NFT art, renowned artists like Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, Manet, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas have pixelated masterpieces.
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But QUINTESSENCE isn’t just about pixelated pieces of nostalgia, it’s art traveling back to the 1980s. This Filipino artist, inspired by classic computer graphics on the Apple II has spun webs of childhood memories.
Embracing the boundaries of the emulator, he embarks on a journey to the art cosmos, nodding onto authorship and appropriation — all in the glory of the pixelated past.
“It is truly a privilege to be living in a time when artists are able to reference, remix, modify, and creatively utilize images of such iconic masterworks—all made possible by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s generous Open Access Policy,” muses Skye Nicolas.
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With a nod from MET to unveil these images in the public domain, people will get to see more of how this Filipino artist is blurring the lines between the old and art pixels.
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Skye Nicolas, the post-conceptual Filipino artist
Meet Skye Nicolas, the artist weaving a tapestry of pop culture references into large format paintings of NFT art. The core of his artworks? Nostalgia — his essential ingredient defining his signature style and visual language.
Injecting nostalgia into his pieces, he investigates the role of memory in the post-internet era through hidden dialogue and intimate conversation. This interweaving of conceptual armature and poetic distillation inspires his creations showcasing a theme he called Induced Nostalgia.
His artistic journey has brought his masterpieces to Dubai, New York, Paris, and now, Berlin. Last October, his NFT art landed the prestigious Priska Pasquer Gallery in Paris. In addition, his artworks also graced art gallery “Galleria Paloma” and joined Art Fair Philippines last February.
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His art isn’t just a showcase of his mastery but also an international phenomenon, with Ayala Land commissioning his works for the celebration of Philippine National Arts Month.
A place where pixels meet paradox as nostalgia meets NFT, it’s QUINTESSENCE for you.
