Matt Kane, All Seeing Seneca, and Josie Bellini are among the 20 artists behind the latest installment of the NFT collective’s Grails project, as revealed by Post-mint.
On Friday, the 20 artists behind Proof’s Grails III collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were revealed, following weeks of speculation.
Matt Kane is a generative artist, All Seeing Seneca is a digital artist who helped create artwork for the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Josie Bellini is the creator of the NFT collection Cyber Brokers.
Each artist contributed a one-of-a-kind piece to the collection, which is limited edition.
Earlier this month, Grails III made its mint passes available for purchase by collectors, preceding the artwork reveal. After the digital art was revealed, users purchased NFTs until the mint period ended on Tuesday.
The collection had a floor price of 2 ETH (approximately $3,200) and had sold 199 ETH (approximately $318,300) at the time of writing.
Digital work speaks for itself in Grails III
While Twitter users speculated about the identities of the unknown artists, Proof asserts that Grails is about more than just the artists and their historical bodies of work. Rather, the focus is on allowing the collector to interact with the artwork prior to exploring the artist’s portfolio. According to Eli Scheinman, the head of art at Proof, the purpose of the collection is to let the digital work speak for itself rather than the creators.
“In our space, and almost always for most collectors, engagement with a piece of art is tightly bundled with the name of the artist behind it and by extension, the value that’s ascribed to that work,” stated Scheinman. “Grails emanated from this place of trying to disrupt that in some respects and to focus the work and the engagement with that work on the piece from a collector perspective.”
Proof’s Grails III is the third entry in the company’s series of mystery NFT compilations. The entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, the creator of CryptoPunks and Meebits, Larva Labs, and the generative artist Tyler Hobbs all contributed to the release of Grails I in February 2022. The subsequent edition of Grails, titled Grails II, was published in August and included works by Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon, Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, and generative artist Refik Anadol.
The Proof role in NFT world
Proof is a prominent player in the NFT market, having made a name for itself with its Moonbirds NFT collection, which grossed $200 million in April sales. This month, the collective inked a deal with United Talent Agency to expand the Moonbirds brand’s creative and entertainment opportunities.
