BASALT GIFs by itsgalo

May 1 – @galoandstuff

Fans of free-flowing animations might find a new home in this collection from Spanish artist itsgalo.Thickly outlined, grainy blends of blue, red, and yellow fade in and out of the canvas to form mesmerizing loops.

It’s a style that builds on Galo’s past sellouts like RASTER and reminds me of Refik Anadol’s Winds of Yawanawa, so there is an audience for this kind of work.

The auction starts at $1 and it passes my wall test. Not much else I could ask for.

Strabismus by Sarah Zucker 

May 1 – @thesarahshow 

One for those who enjoy staring into the quantum fabric of spacetime until they go cross-eyed.

The name Strabismus comes from a disorder that affects the way Sarah experiences depth in one eye, and this is her attempt to let us see things the way she does.

First, she creates infinitely looping digital animations, then passes them through vintage broadcasting equipment to add distortion and rhythm. 

The result: psychedelic plasma. 

Deluge by Chepertom

May 2 – @chepertom

These glitch art tsunamis by French artist Chepertom are scheduled to hit Verse shores on Thursday with some chaotic force behind them.

It’s one for the abstract purists, those who enjoy the unbridled smashing of colors and lines that can only be paired with similarly raw electronic music in the background.

It’s like a distorted slip n slide leading into an ayahuasca trip.

NEURONEXUS

May 5 – @NEURONEXUSwo

Artist/collector Hoizon is curating this group show of 1/1s on Foundation.And emerging art enthusiasts will recognize the creators in this genre-agnostic lineup, including some featured in previous Mint or Skip editions, like Kolahonn and Delta Sauce.There aren’t any sneak peeks yet, and this is probably a collection of 1/1s, so it’s not for everyone, but I’m liking the artists revealed so far.

Human by Yue Minjun

May 8 – @yueminjun001

Art platforms are still vying for a slice of the Ordinals pie, and LiveArt is no exception dropping Human by Yue Minjun.

It’s a compelling Bitcoin debut for both the artist and the platform, as Human is a follow-up to last year’s Boundless, a previous Top 25 pick of ours and LiveArt’s most commercially successful non-fungible release yet.

If you enjoy satirical renditions of Minjun’s exceedingly pink Laughing Man character across the annals of art history, this one’s for you.

Vacation by Roope Rainisto 

May 16 – @rainisto 

Roope kicked off the AI Post-Photography wave last year when he launched the hit collection Life in West America. 

Now we’re getting Vacation, a spiritual successor to LIWA that explores dreamlike vacations that never existed. 

Once again he’s leaning into the imperfections of present-day AI, so expect grotesque hands, misshapen faces, and signs full of gibberish. 

Roope says this will be his main art collection of 2024 and that he’s been “labouring on this for over 6 months now”, so that’s enough for me to get hyped up.

Natives by Nate Alex

May TBD – @nativeswtf 

This was supposed to launch in April, but better late than never. 

Nate Alex (popular NFT collector, artist, and all-around OG) hopes natives will “change the way people think about NFTs and what they can do”. 

Not totally sure what that means yet – but it’ll involve 9 days of social maneuvering, leaderboards, and cutthroat competition from a Who’s Who of popular Web3 influencers and buildooors. 

In addition to getting access to this thunderdome, each mint also comes with a digital game piece on Ethereum, a physical piece hand-drawn by Nate, and a Bitcoin ordinal matching the final art.

chatFUKR by Harvey Rayner

May TBD – @harvey_rayner 

Another one that was delayed from April. 

Generative artist Harvey Rayner is taking all the shenanigans, cringe, and madness from web3 and pumping it into his Bitcoin PFP collection chatFUKR.

The weird character above represents “a troll that has evolved in the wild of interconnected chat… consuming the discord of Web3 communities. It screams as its consciousness comes online…”

I don’t know what an AI-trained-on-Web3 would look like, but screaming as its consciousness comes online sounds about right.