MARYA TRIANDAFELLOS VISUAL ARTIST
Public Art + Commissions
NYFA NFT Award Winner
An Art Fair Celebrating NFT and Other New Formats
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Quick Facts
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Dates: August 2022
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Location: ChaShaMa Storefront, Midtown, New York, NY; Voxels Metaverse (Online)
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Scale: One NFT, 33.75" x 60"
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Medium: Digital Display, Photography, Digital, AI, Metaverse Exhibition
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Awarded by: New York Foundation for the Arts
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Public Access: Open to the public, 1 month
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About the NYFA Award
The Demystifying NFTs Award, from the prestigious New York Foundation for the Arts, was a comprehensive month-long experience that included a cash award, training, cohort engagement and exhibitions online and IRL.​​​
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Cash Award
The thirty selected artists were awarded $500 to create and mint an NFT.
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Training
The program provided training and documentation through several online sessions which included: Minting Procedures, NFT History and Context, Archival Best Practices, and Legal Best Practices.
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Cohort Engagement
The participating artists met online for a virtual interactive opening on the Voxels metaverse and in person at the opening reception in the ChaShaMa storefront. In addition, the cohort supported each other through the NFT creation and minting process.
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Metaverse Exhibition
Interactive opening utilized several functions of the Voxels interface including a "DJ," avatar dance party, and exploration of the NYFA exhibition and others on Voxels. Each participant built their own space within a constructed space supplied by the NYFA support team.
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ChaShaMa Exhibition
The Voxels exhibition was streamed live on a display in a ChaShaMa storefront in Midtown Manhattan. The cohort also met there for an closing and discussed their experience in the program.
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Marketing Support
Templates provided for press release and social media marketing materials.
"The Offering" exhibited in the Voxels metaverse
The Voxels metaverse exhibition projected in the ChaShaMa storefront in Midtown Manhattan
Opening night dance party in Voxels
Cohort post program meeting to share experiences
Behind the Art
The art selected for the NYFA award, The Offering, is Part of a series of NFTs, entitled Blend, that resides on OpenSea. The Offering is an abstraction with hints of colorful, majestic figures in an exuberant procession.
This is the first series for which AI was utilized. What was fascinating was how two images could be combined in an unimaginable way. Experimenting with various pairs resulted in both fascinating and unusable images. The formula was refined to pair a photo of NYC urban markings with a digital drawing. The resulting images feature a vibrant color palette and graphic, abstract style to visualize the positive energy of NYC.​
Naming the images involved a ink blot test approach in which my interpretation of the resulting image was expressed retroactively, as opposed to me illustrating a concept.
The Offering award winning NFT