The creator of the groundbreaking Checks VV NFT collection and the founder of the creative firm Visualize Value, Jack Butcher, is introducing a new venture called Checks Elements. In this project, hand-drawn physical prints are combined with generative art.
Jack Butcher’s new project, Checks Elements, explores the relationship between consensus and truth through a 152-piece generative art collection. Inspired by the four classical elements of earth, fire, water, and air, each piece in the collection represents a unique algorithmically-generated composite of colors that make up these elements.
Butcher’s team modified the algorithm that created the original Checks collection and added new parameters to create the new collection. Butcher collaborated with master printmaker Jean Robert Milant and Cirrus editions to translate the NFT outputs into hand-drawn 30-inch by 43-inch monoprints. They used an on-chain SVG file fed through a vintage lithographic printing press to bring the art to life.
To create the physical prints, the printer etched the signature four-by-four Checks grid onto a plate. Butcher and his team then added each paint color featured in the collection one by one, based on the algorithmic outputs. Afterward, each physical artwork received authentication using Butcher’s fingerprint and came paired with an Ethereum-based NFT.
Christie’s will hold a solo auction featuring three of the four “Alpha” elements, which include water, air, and earth, starting on May 16 and ending on May 23. St. Luke’s Hospital will receive a portion of the sale proceeds. Hospital for Research on Children in Jude. Beginning on May 20, the physical artworks and their digital replicas will be on display at Christie’s New York Gallery.
The Checks Elements collection’s remaining pieces, which include the fourth Alpha element of fire, will be available via public auction for 24 hours. The physical prints will begin shipping on June 24.
Martin Klipp, president of Beyond Art Creative, who assisted in creating the artwork, said, “We made a conscious choice not to include a burn mechanism into this thing. Because in my mind both pieces are art. Both parts are paired, both parts have value, and both parts can exist either together or separately. “.
Tyler Hobbs joined other NFT artists and galleries who have recently embraced the physical forms of their NFTs when he exhibited large-scale prints of his QQL: Analogs in March 2023 at the Pace Gallery in New York City. Owners of artist Mpkoz’s Metropolis NFT collection were allowed to participate in a physical activation to mint a second, physical piece in the particular city associated with their NFT in February 2023 thanks to a collaboration between Art Blocks and NFT Gallery Bright Moments.
