Linda Dounia

When I was asked to interpret one of Alma Thomas' seminal works, *Resurrection*, I was overjoyed by the opportunity. Alma found delight in the sway of a leaf blown in the breeze, in the changing hues of a tree from one season to the next, in the quiet contemplation of nature's course. Serendipitously, over the last few months, nature has been at the core of my practice, by way of artificial intelligence.
It all started last year when I decided to train my first GAN model with a database of my works - hand-painted acrylic abstract vignettes. I needed something to meditate on while creating the necessary volume of work to properly train the GAN; in my case, 2000 paintings. What better than nature as a focus of meditation? Its expansiveness as well as its changing place in my life over the years provided me with enough inspiration to get through the vignettes. This was the biggest undertaking of my career as an artist, and I had no idea how drawn I would be to both the process and the results.
All of my work today incorporates the outputs of this training and AI in general. I have discovered more ways than I could have ever imagined to collaborate with AI, guided always by the exploration of phenomena in nature. *Sparrows do not fear the sun* is the beginning of a new direction in my collaboration with AI. In this new exploration, I bring outputs of my AI training into the canvas and integrate them back into my painting practice. There is something fascinating that happens in the journey from human to machine back to human. The process is long and leaves lots of room for contemplation and meditation on the natural phenomena I set out to explore.
In the case of *Sparrows do not fear the sun,* I focused on the only tree on my late grandfather's millet farm which provided the only shelter from an often cruel sun. It was a neem tree of modest size but a mighty capacity for cooling. Most importantly, it was easy to climb and one could see the whole spread of the farm from a few branches up. From up there, I would watch sparrows descend on the millet stalks to feed for short periods of time and fly back up. Their choreography was fluid and ever-changing, providing entertainment for long stretches of time.
Unable to cope with the increasing demands for water and inputs as climatic conditions worsened, my grandfather eventually sold the farm, and with it, the neem tree, the rows of millet, and the sparrows that liked to feed on it. I am glad one of my earliest memories of communing with nature is still alive in my mind and lives on in my work. Thank you Alma for taking me back there.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Linda Dounia titled Sparrows do not fear the sun..

Sparrows do not fear the sun.

Tom Sachs

The entrance to the basement shop from where all good things are birthed. The lord chisels still, so don't leave your bench for long.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Tom Sachs titled Belly of the Whale: 01.

Belly of the Whale: 01

Grant Riven Yun

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Grant Riven Yun titled Store.

Store

Process Grey

The depression sits idle, patiently waiting to find more time to breathe. It eats what I eat and thinks what I think, but better. Forever hoping that it leaves me be but terrified it will. Love, friendship and responsibility exist around me…but IT does not know those things.Either I contain it well, or I've made them all liars. I'm sorry.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Process Grey titled Fixer-upper.

Fixer-upper

Coldie

Stereoscopic 3D crowd photograph taken at Tame Impala / The Flaming Lips Halloween concert 2013
This night was the most wild concert I've photographed from an audience perspective for sure. Being from Australia, Tame Impala were unaware of the USA's Halloween tradition and were good sports and dressed up in drag as The Spice Girls. The Flaming Lips re-enacted the blood drenching scene from Carrie. Truly odd.
The crowd was dressed up for the occasion and this photo really struck me for all these years. How odd. What is he? A futuristic tinman? Def a space cadet, no matter what.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Coldie titled Get Weird.

Get Weird

Kjetil Golid

Imperfect restorations of the same picture. Each restoration has limited information and a limited ability to reassemble the pixels correctly.
This is a re-utilisation of a pixel-sorting algorithm I made a few years ago. The combination of applying it on a relatively simple image and doing it multiple times makes the workings of the algorithm more apparent. The attached video shows how the algorithm works, repeatedly swapping pixels to recreate the original image.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Kjetil Golid titled Crude Figures.

Crude Figures

Pindar Van Arman

I do not do editions for a variety of reasons. This practice continues in this Grails Piece. While each of these may appear the same, they are actually unique generative pieces augmented with noise from the quantum computer ibmq_quinto. At regular scales our world is consistent and predictable, but at the quantum level everything is random and chaotic. Look closely at the details of this piece and you will see that it mimics this phenomenon. Furthermore, the animated numbers, which may be confused with binary, are not actually binary. They are visual representations of qubits in perfect superposition as measured by observing atoms within ibmq_quinto.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Pindar Van Arman titled Quantum Noise.

Quantum Noise

Refik Anadol

Latent Floral A is a multi-dimensional AI Data Painting that transforms a fragment of the world's natural phenomena into a visual poem for Metaverse. Utilizing a raw dataset of 100 million flower images to train a generative adversarial network (GAN), the NFT artwork reveals the latent space in which a machine "dreams” of flowers after learning what a flower is – its colors, patterns, and shapes that exist in its synthetic memories. Anadol's pioneering take on painting with data takes the form of a celebration of the latent sensations that floral patterns and colors induce and gives an abstract "shapelessness” to pigments. The result is a mesmerizing visualization of an alternative natural world that evokes themes of transformation and innovation at the intersection of art, nature, and technology.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Refik Anadol titled Latent Floral - A.

Latent Floral - A

Cachepoor

The style is an amalgamation of the many art styles that I have been deeply influenced by throughout the years- From Italian renaissance portraiture, Catholic Medieval, Flemish Primitives, Thanjavur, Thangka, and the first art styles ever introduced to me- 16bit pixel work and Anime inspired American cartoons from the 1980's.
The backdrop is the view of Manhattan from my childhood neighborhood of LIC Queens.
The 80's iconography is obvious and cliche, but it's continued influence on my aesthetic is undeniable.

There were a few ideas I had for who would be the deity of this piece. I shared my sketch ideas with my friend from childhood, Gene, who was an incredible graffiti artist and musician. He liked my Voltron inspired sketches the most, and I always valued his opinion, so I went with his choice. Tragically, Gene went on to take his life only a week later.

I adorned the Voltron deity in Michael Jackson's "Thriller” jacket- Gene's first musical influence.
Shortly after, my beloved B Paul's health took a nose dive. His fight with cancer was coming to an end- he was in rapid decline.

I worked on most of this piece from my iPad while sitting next to him in the little Brooklyn apartment that we used to share together throughout his hospice.
B paul had an affinity for gold and bling in general. The gold accents of this piece are a homage to him and his distinct style.

B Paul's numerological number is "33”. It is the number of the Master Teacher, a Master Number. 33's are the personification of pure love and compassion- and the love that B had given to me, and all those around him was genuinely nurturing, unconditional and pure.Without B Paul's care and guidance, I would have never become a tattoo artist, nor would I have had the opportunities and career I have today.

Both Gene and B Paul are integral features to my story, who I am as a person and artist, and a large part of my NYC experience. This isn't the first piece that they have influenced, and will not be the last.

Artwork created on the IPad with Procreate and Pixel Studio

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by CACHEPOOR titled My Mother the Sun.

My Mother the Sun

Luis Ponce

Oscillating between extremes.
2160 x 3840 px · 24FPS · 144F

Ambivalence

Alpha Centauri Kid

She deserves it. Below a poem I wrote for your girl, to accompany her beautiful roses…
“I made these roses for your girl, in hopes that she would smile.
The last time you bought her flowers? I think it’s been a while.
She said she likes the subtle glitch and the way the roses sway,
she said it via my DM’s, just the other day.
I hope next time you take her out, you stumble on my name,
saying “that damn Centauri kid has really got some game”…
You’ll laugh and smile, then take her hand and try to catch her gaze, and say “my darling i will spend my life to buy you more A.C.K’s”.”
Dedicated to your girl (past-present-future)

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Alpha Centauri Kid titled made these for your girl.

made these for your girl

James Jean

This is a preliminary sketch and color study for a physical painting that I will be making soon.
Graphite and Digital, 3142 x 4018 Pixels, 2022.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by James Jean titled Dragon Preliminary Study.

Dragon Preliminary Study

Drifter Shoots

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Drifter Shoots titled Dissociation.

Dissociation

Snowfro

The Bookends series explores the tension and harmony between ceramics, one of the oldest crafts known to mankind, and the seemingly unlimited variety of algorithmic art.
This specific output was manually composed by overlaying two hand made ceramic bowls on top of a generative code based artwork (plus a quick and dirty drop shadow). It is my favorite of dozens of manually assembled compositions exploring what an algorithmic edition would look like combining these two very different mediums. While I've been exploring algorithmic art for nearly a decade, my experience in the medium of ceramics is only a year old. Over that year I have found the practice of hand forming and glazing pinch pots/bowls to be a wonderful counterweight to the frantic nature of the crypto/NFT space.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Snowfro titled Bookends (Study).

Bookends (Study)

Harm van den Dorpel

This work is a 2022 reimagining of a previously unreleased composite drawing I made in 2012. At the time I was investigating the Deviant Art community as an outsider, somewhat as visual anthropologist. The aesthetics that emerged from that community strike me as influential for many Degen PFP NFT projects - but then without the financial component. The image is animated with a wavy SVG filter, and it responds to your operating system's settings for 'light' or 'dark' mode appearance.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Harm van den Dorpel titled Breezy Doozy.

Breezy Doozy

Jake Fried

Hand-drawn animation with ink on paper.
My work is typically made by destroying and reworking the same image over and over again for months to create a highly detailed, 1-minute mind-bending animation. But when I am traveling or away from the studio, I will work on flip-books to keep my hands busy and experiment with movement. I don't often publish the results, but when PROOF reached out about providing older work or work in an atypical style for Grails, I thought it would be fun to share one of my favorite flip-books.
Ball was hand-drawn on one pad of Post-It Notes while commuting by train and subway, I used a quarter to trace the circle on each page. I wanted to depict three types of movement all at once - a moving object, a moving light source, and a moving viewpoint or "camera” - while also exploring the expressive, painterly and distorted qualities made possible by drawing at a very small scale in a moving train car. When the flip-book was complete, I scanned each page to create the endlessly looping digital animation. To me, Ball is a meditation on the illusion of movement itself. An object in motion stays in motion. Always move forward.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Jake Fried titled Ball.

Ball

Emily Xie

Unlike Xie's typical code-based work, "Away from Keyboard" is a physical piece: a hand-cut and pasted collage inspired by her own algorithms. Each piece of paper used is printed with one of her generative patterns. Through this manual creation process, Xie gets to explore and understand her generative systems in a different light.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Emily Xie titled Away from Keyboard.

Away from Keyboard

William Mapan

This titan is keeping the Vault safe. What's behind though… ?

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by William Mapan titled The Guardian.

The Guardian

Nadya Tolokonnikova

The artwork reflects on some questionable elements in biblical writings on which a number of know right-wing politicians still base their misogynist and homophobic law-making practices. The artist suggests them to eat their own scroll and stop harming women and LGBTQ+ bodies based on historical writings. Created by Pussy Riot in Chicago in the spring of 2017, and was a reaction on Donald Trump becoming a president.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Nadya Tolokonnikova titled Eat The Scroll.

Eat The Scroll

Mr Doodle

A digital artwork by Mr Doodle as part of a continuation of his Abstract Doodlism series. Which features layers of loose doodles on top of one and other in a way that creates a feeling of colourful graffiti like lines building raw, vibrant images.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Mr Doodle titled Red Skull.

Red Skull

Osinachi

Gas masks were extensively used during the First World War and the Second World War. Although it is rarely talked about, Africans played a huge role in both wars, which means that they must have been handed gas masks at some point to go out into the war front and face the enemies. Yet, a cursory search on the internet shows that there is hardly any image of an African wearing a gas mask in these wars. Why?

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Osinachi titled IN THE AIR.

IN THE AIR

Alida Sun

"It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail… squeezed through slow digital connections, compressed, reproduced, ripped, remixed, as well as copied and pasted into other channels of distribution.”—Hito SteyerlMade with noise, code, scrap paper, tea, tape, discarded electronics, graphite and light projection. Inspired by artist friends in the highly networked practice of generative art, as well as Hito Steyerl's seminal defense of the poor image, GEIST mixes generative, traditional, digital and material processes.An exploration and reconciliation with the strange power of the static thumbnail in web3.An homage to all the poor images no less haunting for their humble resolution that became formative cultural influences for those of us who grew up on the Internet.
Lastly, a non-literal labyrinth linking past and upcoming long form generative art projects - GEIST gives rise to keys for those willing to explore a non-linear future.

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Alida Sun titled GEIST.

GEIST

neurocolor

Neural Pattern formation cloud update // in progress

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Neurocolor titled Retinal Plugin.

Retinal Plugin

Justin Aversano

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Justin Aversano titled Cognition #0 - Returning Home.

Cognition #0 - Returning Home

Zancan

A year ago I was obsessively crafting algorithms to draw trees with a pen plotter. At the core of them is a piece of code that fast computes line intersections, the black magic behind all of my pen plotter works.
The Fabric of Trees is an output from the same algorithm that later made my genesis ETH piece "The Oak Tree", nothing less, except the magic of deactivating line intersections. "
• 5600x5600 PNG
• made with javascript code
• exists as a plottable file

Presented by PROOF in Grails II, a work of art created by Zancan titled The Fabric of Trees.

The Fabric of Trees

We're thrilled to present Grails: Season II. We're bringing more artists into the collection and distributing Mint Passes to __[PROOF Collective NFT](https://google.com)__ and nested Grail Moonbird holders. As always, artist identities are kept hidden until the post-mint live reveal event.

Type	Edition
Mint date	Aug 17, 2022

Details