Consistency in the NFT Art World — What does it even mean?
Since i’m hosting a Twitter-Space about this topic tomorrow, i thought it would be a good idea to write down my thoughts on it, so people can read this when joining the space later on so i don’t have to repeat myself. Or read it before joining the space and gather their thoughts on the topic.
So here we go:
The concept of consistency is given a lot of weight in the NFT space, in the art world in general, although it seems to be way more extreme in the world of NFT art.
Disclaimer: i’m not critisizing or hating on any of the artists i’m going to mention. I have the highest respect for them and their work. I’m just using them as examples of the concept.
I’m not saying consistency is the only factor in the NFT space that guarantees an artists success, there’s a lot more factors in play: OG status, clout, originality come to mind. But consistency seems to play a very large role. Too large if you ask me, especially if you look at how consistency seems to be judged by the majority of collectors.
So if we take a look at the most successful artists in the space, we can see a pattern: Almost all of them have a very obvious consistent visual style. For example look at artists like XCopy or DeeKay for instance. Same color palette, same shape language, same animation style in pretty much every single piece. Everyone can tell in a matter of nanoseconds that the piece they are looking at is from that artist.
Or look at another example: Lucas Zanotto. He made hundreds of pieces over the last couple of years based on the very same concept: simple shapes with eyes rolling around in a satisfying way in a short seamless loop. Same pastel colour palette, same material combinations, same kind of smooth motion, it’s basically variations of the very same thing. Are they pleasing to look at: definitely. Are they still interesting to look at after you’ve seen dozens of them: well, at least not to me anymore. I’m certain he would be able to peek my interest and curiosity again with very different works, since i think he has a great eye for compositions and shapes and motion, and i’m puzzled why he doesn’t use those talents to surprise his audience rather than to meet their expectations. On the other hand there’s also some very consistent artists that manage to still surprise me with pretty much every drop, take Tony Babel, Gavin Shapiro or UntitledArmy for instance. So these things naturally don’t have to exclude each other i think.
Consistency is looked at way to narrow minded in the nft space IMO. it can mean so much more than just the purely visual component. Look behind the curtain, understand what ties the artists works together beyond color palette and shape language. It can mean so much more.
Why isn’t it even more desirable as a collector to know the artist you’ve just collected a piece from is able to smash it in multiple disciplines? Take for instance Kidmograph. He does very different things, 3D work, 2D animations, 3D works that look like illustrations, but also more photoreal stuff. And yet, you can tell that it is him, if you followed his work for a while and understood his “language”.
Language is a very important term here. I believe every artist has a specific way to express himself, and sometimes it’s not that obvious to identify. If you are not able to make the effort to study the body of work and understand the language, and instead just judge the book by its cover — namely the most obvious visual components — you don’t seem to understand that much about art in the first place IMO.
Personally, i couldn’t lock myself into a specific visual style for the rest of my life. I enjoy to push my boundaries, get out of my comfort zone, test fresh waters and just go wherever inspiration takes me. But that’s just me, i can totally see how this can be viewed in a different way. I really wonder how those really “consistent” artists manage to keep going. Again, i’m not judging or saying this is a bad thing, i’m just curious how they do it, how they look at their own work. If they have no desire to do something different from time to time. Or do they do it in secret and just not publish those works? And if so, why? personally, i would be very interested to see those works.
Also i guess this can be looked at both ways, an artist can have a very consistent visual style, but chooses to express himself differently in the way he approaches a topic in a piece for instance, but why is one approach valued higher than the other? Is it even looked at that deeply? or is it simply easier to identify the purely visual aspect and just go with that?
What are your thoughts about this topic, how do you think your work is consistent, do you even think it’s important, and if so or not, why? Looking forward to the conversation. :)
