My Kawaii Valentine

Featuring an NFT that will evolve as the sale progresses

14 - 22 February 2022

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Be My Valentine

Inspired by the Japanese culture of kawaii, this themed online sale runs across Valentine’s Day in the West, and Lantern Festival in Asia. The culture of kawaii emphasizes the quality of cuteness to soften the heart, while expounding a philosophy that in order to find true love, one must first learn to love oneself from within. During this week of love we will be offering works that explore the themes of kawaii, companionship, self-appreciation, and sexuality. Naturally there will be lots of flowers. The selection includes unique and edition works by Katherine Bernhardt, Edgar Plans, Gina Beavers, Julian Opie, Javier Calleja, Ayako Rokkaku, Damien Hirst, Mr Doodle and Takashi Murakami alongside a series of NFT artworks, and the very first NFT art piece created by the virtual influencer, MonoC.

A ground-breaking NFT by MonoC

MonoC is a virtual human who is programmed to think, act, and feel like a real human being. A passion to lead a life well-lived pushes her to have a sometimes challenging approach to love; she would rather be drowned by love than live a loveless life. To love and be loved are key human emotions, and she is on an ongoing journey to understand and feel love. As part of this journey, MonoC has created the work Drowning in Love, a dreamlike, abstract, and immersive experience showcasing what the power of love can have on our lives.

This generative artwork will be created in part by real-time data drawn from the My Kawaii Valentine auction. Data-driven algorithms created by MonoC will respond to participation of bidders in the auction to procedurally generate melodies and animations within pre-programmed parameters. The unprecedented digital artwork places art collectors at the heart of the creative process, their actions will direct the artwork’s final form. The exact amount of data points used to generate Drowning in Love will be defined by the My Kawaii Valentine auction; a minimum of 100,000 data points is required over the 7-day auction period for the artwork to be optimized.

For this ground-breaking artistic endeavour, MonoC has partnered with leading Hong Kong composer Terrance Ma who has composed music to accompany the visual aspect of this digital artwork. Ma is working with musicians from Beijing to create the foundations of the music that will generate into its final form as data is collected from the auction’s progress.

MonoC is committed to making this NFT a carbon-positive digital work by committing to supporting forest and wildlife conservation in Brazil and will offset the tonnage of carbon dioxide produced by the artwork’s specific Smart Contract.

A New Generation of NFT Names

The My Kawaii Valentine sale features a collection of complex and unique 1/1 NFT artworks, created by cutting-edge crypto artists. In addition to Drowning in Love, the world’s first auction-data generative NFT created by a virtual human, the sale includes highlights from artists such as Maciej Kuciara, renowned self-taught Polish digital artist and director. Maciej’s innovative approach to concept art has helped build the visual identity of projects such as The Last of Us game series, Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers movie series, and Rupert Sanders’ Ghost in the Shell.

Lili Tae, an illustrator based in Bangkok, draws inspiration from her subconscious mind, transferring her experiences through mellow strokes and soothing yet vibrant colors. A chosen artist to participate in Unknown Asia Art Fair in Osaka, Lili returned the following year for her first solo exhibition, due to the overwhelming response to her work. Recently, Lili was commissioned by L’Oréal Paris to create a unique NFT inspired by shades of red.

Rewind Collective addresses the gender and minority imbalances throughout the art world, by creating artworks aiming to uplift women and minorities, the largest groups of people who have been traditionally marginalized by the art world.

The artist collective EXCALIBUR creates pixel art, focusing on the subculture and mythology of Japan, bridging the gap between “virtual” and “reality”. The unique NFT Gotchi-Noh / Izutsu (The Well Cradle) is a collaboration between EXCALIBUR and the DeFi-staked crypto collectibles Aavegotchi; the artwork overlays the unimaginable evolution of our future society through blockchain technology, and the fundamental human sentiments that remain unchanged, even as the eras change.

Pomme Chan, born and raised in Bangkok, lived and worked in London for 11 years before returning to Bangkok to open her own home décor shop and found Happy People Studio. Using her unique hand-drawn skill to create art, Pomme draws inspiration from everyday life: movies, music, culture, and architecture.