For the past two years, Los Angeles-based artist Amir Fallah has constructed intricate, deeply autobiographical  imagery by mining the archives of various universities, libraries, and public collections. The resulting paintings act  as a living document of his experiences. Now, he turns to his own archive to produce works that exist solely in the  digital realm. They function as an archeological survey, with new works cannibalizing the old. 

Fallah ties together vignettes of appropriated imagery, using fine art, children’s books, and the visual and sublim inal messaging of consumer advertising. The lines between traditional painting and digital production are blurred  beyond recognition, dealing with themes of climate change, immigration, xenophobia and social justice. In his  latest series of NFTs for SupeRare, Fallah lifts past work not only into the present, but into the future tense. Ani mating previously static elements of Fallah’s work allows deeper complexities of the paintings to be revealed over  time, with layer upon layer of various characters, graphics, signs and symbols peeling themselves away, primed  for discovery and extended dialogue. 

They are transformed into newer statements, while maintaining the nuanced, rich histories belonging to Fallah’s  subjects. From patterns on their clothing, to personal keepsakes, to individual experiences, all of these things  belonging to his subjects are brought into the fold of these reimagined works.

Fallah’s visual signature has coalesced into the “veiled portrait”: a way in which he disguises the identity of his sit ter, while including intimate details of their environment, their relationships, and their memories. Set against these  portraits are elements (they can be physical or purely symbolic) of Fallah’s own backstory, as a young Iranian  immigrant who found a safe space in skateboarding and graphic arts culture. 

Two Sides is an amalgamation of over a dozen existing works in Fallah’s studio. Its composition is centred by a  Janus-like, two-headed figure obscured by a decorative veil bearing the face of a Chinese dragon. Below it, a  painted vase of relative origin. The gestures of the two pairs of hands resemble that of Buddha, as one gives,  one receives. Surrounding the central figure are various images, including that of Humpty Dumpty (taken from a  children’s book), a cartoon face in black and white, a graphic of a hand grasping money (pointing up towards the  centre) taken from a 1900’s Polish matchbox, and an orb in the upper left corner representative of the light and  dark side of the moon. Subtle movement can be detected in several areas of the composition, which can only be  achieved in digital format: Humpty Dumpty seems to dance about, the moon-orb turns on its axis, a white square  appears to wax and wane towards the two-headed being, and the cartoon face grows and recedes in its mono chrome gradient.

Overall, the piece is a literal and symbolic commentary on political polarization. Two heads on one figure suggest  that although they are inseparable, both sides are unable to see, hear or talk to the other in any meaningful way.  The shifting white square and the cartoon face recall the fickle nature of wealth and poverty being taken away  from the political engine that drives the world’s nations. Humpty Dumpty continues his carefree dance, edging  dangerously close to a precipice that could spell his end; an apt metaphor for the fate of those blindly revelling in  their own rationalised, cloistered beliefs and values. Fallah is careful not to ascribe his content to a named or par ticular ideology, rather he chooses to integrate diverse, international symbols to communicate his frustration with  an inertia that plagues every citizen, aristocrat, and politician, alike.

Amir Fallah was born in Tehran, Iran in 1979. Following the Islamic Revolution, his family emigrated to the United  States. Fallah received his BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2002 and his MFA  in Painting from the University of California (Los Angeles) in 2005. Solo exhibitions of Fallah’s work have been  presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tucson, AZ), the San Diego Art Institute (California), the Nerman  Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS) and the South Dakota Art Museum at South Dakota State Uni versity (Brookings, SD). Group exhibitions featuring Fallah’s work have been presented at venues including the  56th Venice Biennale (2015), the 2009 Sharjah Biennial, the Orlando Museum of Art (Orlando, FL), The National  Arts Club (New York), the Wetherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC), and the Los Angeles Design Center. He is  the recipient of the 2020 COLA Individual Artist Fellowship and Marciano Art Foundation Artadia Grant, the 2015  Painters & Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the 2002-2005 Jacob Javits Fellowship. Fal lah’s work has appeared in international media outlets including Artforum, Forbes, Artillery Magazine, L.A. Weekly,  Harper’s Bazaar Art Arabia, Vogue Paris, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic and The New York Times. Selected permanent  collections of his work include the McAvoy Foundation for the Arts (San Francisco), the Jorge M. Pérez Collection  (Miami), the Microsoft Collection (Washington State), the Museum of Art and History (Lancaster, CA), the SMART  Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS).  Fallah lives and works in Los Angeles.

Claudie Linke is an artist, illustrator and animator, with a passion for writing and music. Whenever possible, she combines her various interests in her work. Linke was born 1979 in Germany, now she is based between Bali and the Alps. Currently she’s working on an animated graphic novel which will be released as NFT in 2022. 

Linke finished art school at the age of 39. She changed her career path rather late in life. She first studied economics and was working for many years in several tech and travel start-ups, while always pursuing diverse creative projects on the side. One day though, when things fell apart, again, she decided it’s enough & time to commit to her real passion – the arts. 

Soon after she got recognition from several awards in Illustration, currently long-listed (3rd time) for the World Illustration Awards 2021, while the judging continues over the summer.

Jack Of Diamonds, 2021, NFT

While most of her work specializes on dense story telling, often conveying complex topics such as society (see The Wild West or Arcadia), history or web3 philosophy, “The Playing Cards” are a bit different. Composition and messages are much more simple. However, the 16 cards all play together to portray Bali as the sum of its cards, in visuals and sounds. The sum – much bigger than its individual elements. An island metaphor for what all humankind experienced during the pandemic. When it was a universal feeling to realize how one man can do nothing at all. 

Queen Of Hearts, 2021, NFT

The recent pandemic provided too much inspiration. And asked for action. During the crisis, Linke found herself stranded on Bali. The ongoing disaster hit the islands hard, as 80% of its income relies on tourism. According to the Worldbank, an additional 8 mio Indonesians fell into severe poverty since March 2020. Which, in the case of Bali, means people struggle to cover the basic needs: Food. Rice, in the case of Bali. Also, there is a huge trash problem in Indonesia. The annual rainy season usually shines a sad light on the sheer volume of trash, when the rivers drift all that rubbish into the ocean. But the last wet spell was incredibly hard, the beaches were littered with plastic, all over.

Ace Of Spades, 2021, NFT

Linke came across a great emergency relief program from a Balinese local, Made Janur Yasa, called the „Plastic Exchange“: Made came up with the idea that people in need can collect plastic and exchange it for rice. Linke found the idea to treat plastic as a „currency for rice“ interesting, and also the values of the program, around community, the individual’s dignity & independence a great analogy to the crypto culture. Hence, ten percent of NFT proceeds go to the Plastic Exchange. Up until now (4 of 16 playing cards released), the donations bought 723 kg of rice, which translate into food for 4 people for 723 days. More to come!

Jack Of Clubs, 2021, NFT

While she first focused on Illustration in the first years of her creative career, NFTs and “free art” opened doors into something new and even more divine. In her case, the possibility to cross borders, combining digital paintings, animation and her music production. A magic ticket to create whole new worlds, something she’s always dreamt of. For Linke, the ultimate tool for storytelling. 

Arcadia, 2020, NFT

What she finds alluring about the multidisciplinary approach is that, from the very beginning of brainstorming, she can plan to add even more layers to her stories, sometimes complementary, from time to time conflicting. Also, she constantly transfers what she learns in one discipline into the other realm. Music, painting, writing and animation are somewhat similar languages, but very different in their capacity and how they impact emotions, psyche and mind. Linke is fascinated by the thought of involving various senses, especially while working in the digital world, which is too often despised as “cold”. The playground is endless and the future will be even more exciting with VR, the Metaverse and all that. Sometimes she would add a second level of meaning with the music (as seen in Jack Of Diamonds, when the music tells a second, more secret story. The visuals show a dancer, as a symbol of balinese rich culture and its specific form of hindu religion. The music starts typically balinese but then picks up on the arrival of early islam in Bali, which arrived in the form of trade & sailors. About how hinduism and islam peacefully co-exist in Indonesia, most of the time …). In other works, she opens up a meditative space with the sound in order to give more space for thoughts, by using certain rhythms and frequencies which might talk to certain energy fields in our bodies. An infinite potential, but also a decent amount of questions coming up in the process. Which sounds cause certain emotions? How do colors sound? 

Claudie Linke, courtesy of the artist