When done properly, collaborations between artists can result in some of the most interesting work in the NFT space. When creative forces converge to create a singular piece, there’s potential for something unexpected and powerful to be born.
Nevertheless, collaborations can be challenging for a multitude of reasons.
Artists can be stubborn and fixated on fulfilling their own creative vision. This can make creative compromises difficult, as the typically solo process of making art becomes a two person endeavour.
From a collector’s perspective, the discoverability of a collaborative artwork can be hampered by the inability of marketplace search engines to consistently find the piece when searching for the different artist names.
Presumably this will be resolved over time as search engines become more powerful and efficient. At the moment however, marketplaces like SuperRare and Foundation have a lot to improve upon in this department.
To some, a collaboration can be seen to ‘dilute’ the purity of a particular artist’s work. If one collects an XCOPY piece for example, then they likely want to collect a ‘pure’ real XCOPY that has no compromise on the XCOPY-ness of its essence.
However, a contrasting perspective is that collaborations can be especially appealing to collectors due to them being a ‘diversification of investment’ between two artist’s careers. By betting on two different names, the risk is spread across two different brands. The likelihood that 1 of the 2 artists incurs value over time is more probable than betting on just one artist alone.
Another positive aspect is that collaborations make for a great bear market activity for artists, as they are fun, they involve creative building, and they facilitate new connections. In the bull market, for the most part everyone is fixated upon trying to sell their own work, and creative collaborations often take the back seat of priority.
Here are some of the top collaborations of 2022 where the fusion of the artistic styles and concepts has been especially successful:
The 6 piece collection combines the photography of Reuben Wu with the AI techniques of Jenni Pasanen which results in a surreal and otherworldly hybrid of god-like forms from another planet.
Current collectors include:
This 1/1 released on SuperRare combines the midnight blue aesthetic of landscape photographer Cath Simard with the abandoned architectural environments of photographer/artists Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell.
Collected by: Norcal_Guy
Set amidst Seerlight’s characteristic backdrop of sparkling stars and bright colors, this collaboration infuses the glitching GIFs and meme lore of performance artist Alpha Centauri Kid.
Collected by: Curatedxyz
“unreciprocated adoration,”
The distinct orange & black color palette shaped in a crescent moon formation is already an iconic marking of Brazilian artist omentejovem. The bold and free illustrative style blends perfectly with the raw and at times grotesque subject matter of DWTML.
Collected by: Unreleased
Perhaps the most different in terms of their typical artistic styles, this piece successfully fuses the black and white photography of Yakob El-Moussa with the glitch technique of JakNFT, resulting in a contrasting explosion of neon scripture and classic portraiture.
Collected by: uncollected
Rektguy 1/1s
Although technically a ‘PFP project’, AlienQueen is a talented artist who was the perfect collaborator to create several unique Rektguy 1/1s for the collection. Her in-your-face use of bright color and striking iconography works well with the glitchy nature of OSF’s thematic approach to an XCOPY inspired aesthetic.
Collected by: multiple collectors
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