Ondrej Zunka to launch The Fleur NFT collection on National Flower Day
Celebrating the arrival of spring 2022, renowned digital artist and creative director Ondrej Zunka is set to launch an opulent floral encyclopaedia of 21 unique 3D flower NFTs, on Monday, 21 March, also known as National Flower Day.
From the creator of pieces such as Dogue, as featured and sold on Nifty Gateway, this collection is certainly not to be missed. Each detail-heavy artwork is rich in colour and texture, conjuring a near- scientific three dimensional view of the flower, as well as showcasing its unique beauty. Every flower has its own unique name, personality, and thoroughly informative and illuminating description.
Meticulously crafted one-by-one, the works are an accumulation of Zunka’s technical skills and aesthetic precision formed over the years as a 3D artist. A combination of tools and techniques were used to create the digital flowers, including virtual sculpting, dynamics simulations and procedural modelling systems.
On the inspiration behind the works, Zunka explains: “Plants are the foundation of all life on earth, upon which humans and every other living creature depends. Habitats thrive with a diversity of plants that form complex communities, who both depend on and compete with one another in a natural symbiosis.
“Flowers, the reproductive structure of flowering plants, seduce pollinators with their alluring colours, sweet nectar and scented petals. Yet they bloom only briefly, and only under the right conditions, making flowers an expensive resource for a plant to produce. But this cost comes with a high reward for the plant, pollinators and people alike.
“It is my wish that these flowers inspire us to look for guidance in the infinitely beautiful and intelligent natural world. The way habitats always manage to remain balanced despite the chaotic diversity of plants reminds me of the NFT ecosystem. Or what the NFT space could be.”
Launching on Monday, 21 March, 21 flowers will be auctioned starting at 0.21 ETH. The bidder who ends up with the most flowers from the collection will be airdropped an NFT of their flowers made into a bespoke digital bouquet. Each collector will also be eligible to receive a signed print of their flower.
Zunka launched into the world of NFTs in early 2021, with his whimsical nature-inspired collection “I’d rather be outside”, which sold out on Nifty Gateway. The Fleur follows as his most ambitious and comprehensive NFT project to date.
There’s also potential for it to evolve into something bigger, hinted by Zunka himself. Describing the drop, he says: “My work is usually animated and I consider these first 21 flowers a Gen0 from which I could branch into other areas. One specific use case of the NFT technology I find fascinating is dynamic NFTs. I could for example animate a plant which would then grow over time, day by day. Or perhaps to create generative flowers and cross-pollinate between them to create new hybrid flowers.” Watch this space.
London-based Zunka began experimenting with digital art after a creative pivot that followed a master’s degree in Economy and System Engineering. The talented artist has since worked with the likes of global brands such as Nike, Apple, Adidas, Burberry, MTV, and Prada. His eye for dizzying detail and photorealistic aesthetic results in artwork that investigate notions of surrealism and plays with reality in a futuristic spirit. This has amassed him a sizable social following, and elevated his name to one that’s not just well-respected in the NFT space, but one that stirs up anticipation in design more broadly.
The DART museum in Milan, the world’s first and only museum of dynamic art, is featuring the collection as a unique concept art exhibition, opening in April 2022. The flowers will be displayed on screens that are dug into a grassy meadow, creating a semi-real, semi-virtual experience. Visitors will be encouraged to lay across the lawn to appreciate the art as they might with a real flowers.
Coinciding with a day that celebrates the joy and vibrancy associated with the beautiful blooms of our planet, this life-affirming collection presents an opportunity to buy a flower whose beauty will remain unchanged, frozen forevermore in a permanent state of glory – but with the potential to evolve into much more.
