Ostachowski Announces Participation In CADAF Online Contemporary & Digital Art Fair This Month
(PRUnderground) June 23rd, 2020
New media artist Martin Lukas Ostachowski is announcing a new way to showcase original works of art during the global COVID-19 pandemic: artists need to step into the digital space.
“When the pandemic broke out, I found myself facing cancelled art exhibitions and a postponed art residency,” he says, “But I was able to conduct a live-stream artist talk with London-based MOCDA Museum of Contemporary Digital Art, and I presented the history of blockchain and crypto art at the New York-based Virtual Rare Art Festival held in May.”
Ostachowski says embracing the digital arena is important for artists at this moment in history. “There’s still opportunity right now, as long as artists are open to it and search for it.”
He says, “I also participated in virtual reality exhibitions, and I just presented a new piece at the Berlin-based ‘Are We There Yet? Creative Micro Festival’ in June.
Ostachowski is preparing for The Contemporary and Digital Art Fair (CADAF) Online, a virtual art fair to be held in June 24-28. He will showcase nine pieces, one of which was two years in the making. CADAF is determined to challenge the status quo caused by COVID-19 with this innovative event, and will host the physical edition of the digital art fair later this year.
Ostachowski’s journey into the digital art realm started about two-and-a-half years ago when he discovered Blockchain technology, the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. “Suddenly, it became possible to sell digital artworks online as registered originals. It was a game-changer!” he says. That’s when he started creating and selling digital art.
“Before, it always felt absurd that digital art had to be forced into physical mediums in order to show, distribute, and sell it,” he says, “You had to burn it onto a CD or make a video cassette – which seemed paradoxical.”
The Polish-born German artist, now based in Canada, explores geometric abstraction and minimalism using physical and digital languages through the use of technologies. Ostachowski truly believes in blockchain’s transformative potential beyond cryptocurrency. He is passionate about educating people about blockchain.
The blockchain itself became the subject of a whole body of work with clouds as its “medium.” “Clouds are a great symbol for the blockchain ecosystem,” he says. “Blockchain is an accumulation of hope, just as a cloud is of water, for a better future, wealth, and socio-economic systems.”
In the last six years, Ostachowski has taken more than 250 flights, during which he started studying clouds, taking photos and recording videos. He has a passion for traveling and exploring different cultures, and embraces the idea of us all as international strangers, without borders, looking forward to our destinations and new memories.
Ostachowski’s work is personal, intimate, and explores the concepts of his identity. “I enjoy the versatility of clouds, their peculiarity of being intangible, in continuous change, while remaining familiar and relatable to everybody,” he says. “This ambiguity is a perfect stage for my work. We will never see the same cloud twice.”
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