Hello and welcome to the next iteration of the Artist Spotlight brought to you by The Culture Project. Today we are going to cover an artist that is surrounded by a bit of mystery. There has been a lot of speculation that it could be a well known artist releasing work under a new name. Although none of that has been proven and I’m not even really sure where these rumors started. There is no denying that Ty Vek showed up recently out of no where and has already left a lasting mark in the generative art scene.
The first project they released is called Commune. It’s a small set of one hundred pieces, released in October of 2022. When releasing this project they had yet to form any kind of social media presence. The description on fxhash is pretty simple. “A minimalist composition with a nod towards architecture.” Me, Commune, Etc. by Ty Vek, goes into some great details about the artist and the project. It’s a pretty interesting article covering his name, the metaphor behind it, and the reasoning for anonymity. There is a definite understanding of the woes of trusting someone unknown. The artist tends to go dormant on social media while creating and will focus on their art. They also share a few pieces of free code in the article. A Vanilla JS project that creates an SVG and writes it to a canvas and code that creates an empty SVG element with a background that you can use as a starting point.
Commune is a beautiful minimalistic art project, exploring a simple shape and textures.
Commune #3 by Ty Vek
They released their next project about a month later called Verdant Brut. Similar in ways to the their first project, but with a more elaborate feeling in composition. With these two projects released they appear to have defined their style. One thing I love about this artist is they release an article with every project. Regarding Verdant Brut gives props to the artists that inspired Verdant Brut, particularly in regards to palettes, composition, and format. Another great read on the thought process and inspiration behind their work.
A few of the artists he drew inspiration from caught my eye. As I have heard of them and love their work. I have even collected from one of them recently. One of the artists they have personally collected from and shared a piece they have owned for a long time. I know MOMO from his huge murals he does on buildings around the world. It was really cool to see this little piece that they have hanging on their wall at home.
Cosmic Rays #55 by Melissa Wiederrecht from my collection
I’ve always loved abstract art as a genre in paintings and generative art is no different. This might be my favorite collection of theirs. The woodgrain finish on these give them a really nice touch. It feels like it belongs hanging on a wall some where.
Artifice is their third and last project they released in the beginning of December. Self described as “being about playful obfuscation”. It looks like the most complex work they have created so far. But still keeping the same style with the shapes, colors, and textures. And like clockwork they released an article with the project, Artifice & Art Basel. Ty Vek created four 1/1s that were based off of Artifice. They hid them around Art Basel for attendees to find and collect. If you found one you were eligible to claim a matching piece on Objkt.
All but one were found and they auctioned off the last one to the community. Pretty cool contest and a nice way to onboard some new collectors.
This project is about using a lot of simple shapes and layering to make something more cohesive and complex. If you zoom in on these you can see the way other pieces overlap and really add depth to the work. As always you should read their article on this project, they go into some great details about the work, Artifice & Art Basel.
In December, Waiting to Be Signed podcast had a discussion about Ty Vek. One I thought was really interesting. I love that podcast and recommend listening to it for a lot of cool info on fxhash. They cover so much on the fxhash ecosystem, it’s a must listen to. Link below to the episode I was referring to.
Waiting To Be Signed - E49 - Rampant Speculation - December 10, 2022
https://www.fxhash.xyz/article/e49-rampant-speculation
Thanks to everyone that reads and supports. Please give a follow on twitter if you enjoy these. Always more to come. My twitter is @joshripple and The Culture Project for some generative art love.