Pseudonymous artist thr33som3s presents his solo exhibition, Dialogu3, at Vellum LA, exhibiting physical paintings alongside a blockchain-backed archive of digital paintings that inform the artist’s trailblazing generative art practice.

Harkening back to the earlier days of computer and generative art in the 1960s—while strictly influenced by the advent of computers, such work still had to be produced physically, like that of Vera Molnár whose algorithmic programs were implemented by hand—thr33som3s’s generative gouache paintings are likewise infused with rich materiality, a far cry from today’s generative art movement. Though assisted by blockchain interactions, thr33som3s’s physical output altering existing paintings—sometimes multiple times for a single work and over periods of time—stands in stark contrast to current trends of generative art that is exclusively produced digitally or mechanically.

Dialogu3 includes 100 gouache paintings on baseball cards and hundreds of additional digital works that have informed these paintings as part of the artist’s ongoing project thr33zi3s. A generative art project, thr33zi3s enables collectors to create NFTs via blockchain interaction that are dictated to the artist, who alters physical paintings by hand with traits algorithmically determined and pooled from all previous works before minting them back onto the blockchain, and so on. This unprecedented kind of interaction allows each artwork the potential to evolve over time, both in terms of the painting itself as it can be altered (or even destroyed) as well as conceptually within the larger narrative framework of The Grotto, the fictionalized 1970s cocktail lounge where thr33som3s’s community and collectors inhabit various personas, roles, and enact conceptual narratives.

These “dialogues” between artist, collector, and algorithm transform blockchain interactions into a conceptual medium from the moment of transaction and forms the foundation of thr33som3s’s fictional universe in which he is the “benevolent god” overseeing and guiding members through overarching narratives as they influence the trajectory and lifespan of artworks that ultimately look beyond the veneer of America’s favorite pastime to examine the larger implications of tropes, misplaced nostalgia, and the paradoxes of American identity.

The artworks in the exhibition are part of the third iteration of thr33zi3s. 100 physical paintings from the previous iterations will be on view alongside the digital works from which these physical paintings emanate. 33 artworks from thr33som3s’s upcoming release will be available on OpenSea in the form of three 24-hour auctions in August following the opening reception. This is the only time collectors will be able to invest in the potential to collect thr33som3s’s physical work. By collecting these minted works, collectors will be given future utility, allowing them to burn such works at different windows of opportunity in order to receive the physical paintings.

thr33som3s is the enigmatic persona and living project of the pseudonymous artist whose broad conceptual art practice combines elements of gouache painting, generative art, performance art, online communities, randomized events, and innovative blockchain and NFT burning mechanics.

The so-called “benevolent god” of a fictional universe based on gouache paintings of outlandish baseball teams, thr33som3s pushes boundaries between physical and digital art and constantly evolves the interactions between collector, artist, and blockchain unlike any other contemporary artist.

His community of collectors, called The Grotto, is continuously pushed toward innovative, conceptual NFT burn mechanics that promise future value and utility. His generative art project thr33zi3s is the culmination of all his previous work, in which new paintings are created based on traits determined by what the collectors and blockchain dictate to the artist.

thr33som3s currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.