Views: A Collection of Surreal Digital Collages, the fifth release from Cover Art Guy, sold out in a matter of hours, with some items already circulating on the secondary market.
The collection counts ten 1/1 NFTs, defined by the author as “digital collages focused on creating scenic, surreal environments.” Each item includes an unlockable link to a full-resolution artwork file.
From empty expanses to outer space
Collage is Cover Art Guy’s weapon of choice, with physical components from old magazines mixed with digital bits to create visuals as surreal as they are familiar. Views is pushing that aesthetic to its limits. Every item in the collection features a component that invokes the outer space, often contrasted with enclosed living rooms or fenced terraces.
“One of the main aims of the collection was to create surrealistic settings, the best way I like to do that is to show opposites,” Cover Art Guy told Coinpaper when asked about the role of outer space in the collection.
At the same time, Views focuses on themes of solitude, with solitary figures and tall, empty expanses. This language contrasts with some of Cover Art Guy’s earlier pieces, including the Textural Collage collection, which centered on a critique of consumerism and drew on cutouts from mid-century ads.
Rifts and sides
Views is currently featured on the OpenSea main page, but with a total trading volume at 2.9 ETH, it hardly tops the charts, even as it’s earning praise from the NFT art community on Twitter.
The collection’s performance highlights the rift between competing NFT neighborhoods, including PFP projects like Moonbirds or Bored Ape Yacht Club, generative art promoted by collectors and digital galleries, and a recent wave of free mints that mock the rest of the market by openly eschewing both utility and artistic value. For Cover Art Guy, however, these are “different sides” of the same phenomenon.
Not going anywhere
As bear market took hold of the crypto space, NFT prices fell sharply and the question of intrinsic value in NFT visual arts has resurfaced again, but Cover Art Guy, who minted his first NFT in September 2020 after leaving a corporate job, said he wasn’t going anywhere.
“I originally got into NFTs when I saw other mutuals selling their 1/1 artwork through places like Rarible. Ever since then it's what I've focused on and will continue,” he said, adding that he believed 1/1 NFT art would “come out on top again.”
