The range and depth of Carlos Marcial’s artwork simply isn’t possible to encapsulate in one post, but for those that haven’t yet been made aware of this crypto virtuoso’s breath-taking tokens, allow me to show you the tip of the iceberg.
Carlos isn’t an artist that was swayed into crypto art after CryptoPunks started selling for millions of dollars. His genesis token was minted in 2019, and being one of the first serious crypto artists with more time in the game than most, we can see tokenized representations of his style evolving, which presents many opportunities for digital art collectors. He consistently pays homage to cryptocurrency by calling out the failures of fiat, and features Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, several times in his works.
Most of Carlos Marcial’s artworks contain moving elements, you’ll need to click through the images in this article to visit these tokens on SuperRare in order to fully appreciate them.
Fiat est violentiam – Knife – #1
It’s hard to not get all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about Carlos Marcial’s genesis token, minted November 19th, 2019, especially because it’s a nod to the genesis of blockchain technology itself. This “Chancellor on the brink” message was encoded in the genesis block of Bitcoin’s blockchain, and many believe it to be commentary from Satoshi about the economic situation that led to the creation of Bitcoin.
Art Installation N°1
Some art is meta. Like this token for instance, which was minted on December 13th, 2019 and which states in large neon lettering, that it will last forever. This is Carlos Marcial’s first tokenized overt mention of NFTs, and the first in a series of four Art Installation tokens with Art Installation N°2 – Hong Kong Edition, the second part of the series, being minted just three days later, and then the remaining two were minted shortly after that. Digital art collectors may place more value on this token being as how it’s the first in such a limited series of only four, especially if new Art Installation tokens get minted in the future.
Fiat est violentiam – Police State
One thing digital art collectors may find interesting about Fiat est violentiam – Police State, which was minted on May 31st 2020 is that it’s the first tokenized piece in the Fiat est violentiam series to not have a number, and with Fiat est violentiam – Molotov Cocktail minted a couple months after, we also don’t see a number in the title anymore, making it seem like the numbers are being dropped from the series.
Gibson and Nakamoto’s Room in 1984
“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…” ― William Gibson, Neuromancer
A nod to Neuromancer and Satoshi in one token? We may have to skip this one cause it’s just too exciting. Some people (including a coffee powered wordsmith who writes about crypto artists!) think that Neuromancer, written by William Gibson in 1984 was actually the inspiration for the Matrix trilogy. The figure in this token, minted over a year ago from this article’s publication in January 22nd, 2020, could be Satoshi Nakamoto himself, or perhaps it’s Case, the hacker protagonist from Neuromancer.
A Recurring Dream
In this token minted on March 2nd, 2021, we experience a dream-like surrealism as we loop infinitely through a museum, and even pass a familiar Carlos Marcial token, Fiat est violentiam – Aerial Bomb – #4 along the way. While he’s created some tokens in the past with the infinite looping through hallways effect, it’s tantalizing to think that this piece is in at least some way a nod to A Museum for this Infinite Present, which is an homage to the Museum of Crypto Art’s building in Somnium Space, however that is just speculation.
To keep up with Carlos Marcial, follow him on Twitter, subscribe to his Instagram, and check out his SuperRare profile.