A 500 years old cryptoart project bridging the old Renaissance with the Digital Renaissance.
A timeless bridge between 2 artists from the 16th Century and Jæn from the 21st. Frans Huys, a Belgian illustrator (1522-1562), made splendid illustrations of grotesque masks from Flemish sculptor Cornelis Floris de Vriendt (1514-1575).
They provided stone carvers & more with interesting faces to adorn buildings. The Rijks Museum scanned them in high resolution and released them in public domain. I cleaned them carefully, and then breathed a new life into them with my own surreal magic. Uploaded straight to contemporary cryptoart /// here it stands, floating in the digital void, outside of time. This collaboration of 3 European Artists over 5 centuries invites you to ponder about time, culture and tools.
Dropping 22.8.22 on SuperRare, Foundation or even LooksRare or OpenSea, rewarding bidders with a twist. The exhibition of Phase II is happening on people's faces, as masks should do. Find AR filters on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook Messenger by typing "cornaelhuys", and join the grotesque Renaissance carnival. Grotesque being somehow the opposite of going back to platonic ideals during the Renaissance, this more feral, fun and punk energy makes also a lot of sense as being exhibited in the very vernacular contemporary medium that is GIFs through Giphy, compatible with social media and the latest smartphone keyboards. From the Flemish Renaissance grotesque to today's memes, the grotesque spirit changes shape yet surely prevails.
