Selected Works Courtesy of the artists
Collection Description
Seattle has a rich and diverse history of creative communities, from studio art to photography, dance, music, and even performance. The physical works included in this collection involve artists based locally, who are makers and curators of digital paintings, woodblock mosaics, geometric inquiries, light sculptures, and Afrofuturist experiences. Each of these artists will mint works as part of our Genesis cohort at the NFT Museum.
These creatives have exhibited in spaces ranging from King Street Station, the Museum of Museums, and festivals across Seattle. The intention behind bringing these projects into the blockchain space through the Seattle NFT Museum is to establish a bridge between traditional art and web3 platforms.
Through a series of workshops with mentors active in the NFT ecosystem, these artists will develop their own digitally native projects and build their web3 communities, as an extension of their physical practices.
Featured Artists
Lydia Jewel Gerard
Artist Bio
Lydia Jewel Gerard is an abstract painter and digital artist based in Tacoma WA. Her work engages ideas of sexuality, safety, and the investigation of light as it relates to emotion. By utilizing luminance in her digital work and softness in painting, Gerard explores both her own mind and seeks to understand and engage the minds of others.
Gerard received her BA in Studio Arts and Art History from Pepperdine University in 2016 and was first exhibited at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum in the group exhibition Light and Dirty. In the past few years Gerard has been an active member of the Tacoma and Seattle art communities. In 2022 Gerard’s work was exhibited at the Julian Peña Gallery in her solo show Night Light and later that same year by the Factory Gallery at Museum of Museums for her solo exhibition Afterglow.
Most recently Gerard participated in the group exhibition Soft Touch with the Museum of Museums and opened her most daring solo exhibition Tread Lightly at the Steve Gilbert Gallery. Gerard continually explores the connection between her visual artwork and her passion for dance as curator for Tacoma Birds of Paradise, an ongoing art event that brings together pole dancers, visual artists, and DJ’s.
Artist Statement
The greenish fluorescence of my parent's church and the rosy glow of sunlight through wildfire smoke are present in the layers of my paintings. In my pieces, one might find the dim light of the moonrise or the clear, bright light of the morning on a day that’s going to be 85 degrees out, also that moment right when the sun sets and the streetlights turn on.
I use transparency to allow light to pass through layers, soft surfaces to diffuse and reflective materials to throw light in unexpected directions. In my digital pieces, overlapping and altering practices deconstruct and then reconstruct layers. I bloom, blurr and glitch colors and shapes to create an atmospheric quality that feels both organic and synthetic. In all iterations of my work I attempt to bring the viewers attention to the subtle details, their delicacy and their interconnectivity. By working in countless overlapping, transparent layers, which all affect the others above and below, I create a visual representation of my experience.
As there is unending nuance to the world I live in, so too are there unending interactions within my work.
Moses Sun
Artist Bio
Moses Sun fuses hip-hop, jazz, afro-futurism, and the black southern diaspora of his childhood into a mix of visuals that blurs the lines between digital and analog art. His interdisciplinary practice comes from the hip-hop ethos of grinding in the studio, creating multiple tracks (series of works) that he remixes into afro-abstractions expressed on various surfaces, screens, assemblage, prints, plywood, and large-scale murals.
Artist Statement
My work expresses blackness across multiple media platforms, laying bare my personal history, and humanity. I make drawings on paper and iPad, digital and analog photographs, sculpture, and installations, then sample them and in the hip-hop ethos of "grinding" output them as relief sculptures, digital prints, video animations, games, and social media apps. I work intuitively, letting go of pretense so that the story reveals to the viewer an entry point, a beginning but never an end.
An exchange between my ancestors and I occurs with each studio session, breeding a ferocious need to visualize the connections I see between cultures and beliefs. My work bears witness to my struggle to make sense of an inhumane world. The weight of years of chaotic personal, political, and social change has helped me to understand that much of my work is a visual meditation, searching for meaning when words fail.
I have turned my back on the worst parts of the European diaspora that colonized my mind, life, and art. I turn to African, Black, Latino, and Asian diasporas that have accepted me whole and given me strength when Whiteness has taken what it pleases, disposing of what it deemed too much and too loud.
Naoko Morisawa
Artist Bio
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Naoko Morisawa studied design and ceramics at Tama Art University, one of the major art schools in Japan. Her work spans from art exhibitions, commercial design projects, and teaching art classes in Tokyo, Yokohama, and the Canadian Embassy.
In 2004, Naoko moved to the Pacific Northwest where she explored exhibition opportunities starting from small exhibition spaces which then grew into national and international exhibitions. Morisawa has exhibited her work throughout the US and internationally in Canada, Japan, and Ireland. Her work has also been collected by and displayed at various entities including the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, City of Portland, City of Seattle, City of Bellevue, Kent, Shoreline, Seattle Convention Center Summit Building, ArtsWA, Amazon, General Electric, Nordstrom, and Facebook.
Morisawa has been awarded artist grants from the Puffin Foundation, The Santo Foundation, Artist Trust, and more.
Artist Statement
Specializing in intricate natural and oil-dyed wooden and paper mosaics, artist Naoko Morisawa invites viewers to experience her collage works that evoke a sense of joy and comfort. Through her intricate lines and carefully blocked compositions, Morisawa invites viewers to find beauty in the details.
“...I tried to bring to life the material properties of wood and paper as much as possible. I think that mixing two (or more) materials on one panel will make each other more complicated and increase their presence and statement.” - Naoko Morisawa on her multimedia works