You may not know his name, but you’ve probably seen his work.
Alberto Mielgo has been producing digital art for films, television and commercials for years. Notable works include an episode of Netflix’s I LOVE DEATH AND ROBOTS (for which he and his team of more than 70 men won several Emmys), music videos by The Gorillaz and Spider-Man: In the Spider-Verse, where he collaborated with the NFT digital art sensation, Beeple.
Given the success of his former colleague and the high prices that NFTs routinely seek, Mielgo may well be the next commercially popular digital artist to use blockchain technology as a means of reaching a wider audience and attracting the attention of the world of fine Arts.
Nerds taking power
Although he said that he will reveal more of his philosophy regarding the fall as the auction date approaches, Mielgo shared that he considers NFTs as a means of production and distribution a natural fit for his work, in addition to democratizing strength.
“As a digital artist, I have always strived to find the right format to showcase my work. And I felt that the ‘art elite’, which is almost 2% or 3% of the human population that has access to the big galleries or art fairs, they never treat digital art as art – they always thought that we’re for work in films and commercials. “
The irony there, he says, is that digital artists love movies, commercials and popular culture – they are nerds. But now, “the nerds are taking over”.
“The nerds are thinking about cryptography, these abstract concepts that are so beautiful. I think only our generation, or people have been working with technology or in the cloud for so long, do we really understand. Most people need the physical thing, they need the item, for them it is almost impossible to think of owning something that is not physical. I think we are gravitating towards that world. ”
It is a change that the art world is struggling to keep up with, he said – after ignoring works like his for so long, now they are taken by surprise. The new effort to make space for his work is not going through his head, however.
“I think it is validating for sure, but not me personally, it is more the world of digital art. I think Beeple entered the art world, but it’s the people who already liked him that put him there. “
He said he suspects it is “cryptographic people, young generations, new brains, new thinkers … they say ‘hey, this is OUR art'”.
Ultimately, it is Christie knocking on the cryptography door, asking to play in “our” world and not the other way around.
Melted faces
The corporate world also needs to catch up, says Mielgo.
He laments the current “shit” contractual culture surrounding digital art, requiring artists to sign his “soul”. It is a ripe setting for a revolution: the art world is “behind”, big studios are “behind” and NFTs are opening up an alternative “parallel world”.
He told a story of when he and Beeple were working on Spider-Man: Introduction to Spider-Verse, where Beeple would send fast, explosive and “super psychedelic” clips with “hardcore techno” music. Mielgo showed the clips to Sony producers, delighting when his eyes popped out and his jaw dropped.
“They couldn’t even sue,” he said, laughing. “Everything was so fresh, like ‘my God'”.
It was a completely new world for producers, “who drive to limousine studios”, who “don’t connect with real people”.
NFTs are a way to do it all over again, but only on a larger scale.
“It’s a real slap in the face for them, all these dinosaurs.”
The auction will take place at Makersplace on April 14