LEADING WOMEN IN WEB3
“I made a memorial for them, and that kickstarted really largescale works about the nature of war, causes of women in certain societies. Things that never sat right with me”
Before entering web3 in January 2021, ARTJEDI1 (a.k.a Béa Kayani), a British contemporary artist, already had 13 years of committed and dedicated multidisciplinary, multicultural art practice with an extensive list of national and international exhibitions. Her art – ‘Parallel Lives’ – was displayed on New York Times Square in 2015. It was acquired by the Maritime Museum of Lampedusa, Italy, in 2016.
From a grieving self-taught artist to healing through her art and curating her education in the arts realm, she’s led an extraordinary journey of resilience. ARTJEDI1 holds a Master’s in Fine Arts (UWE/Spike Island, Bristol) and various qualifications from Chelsea College of Arts & Design and Sotheby’s Institute of Arts, London, UK.
Her introduction to digital art came when she started photographing water reflections. The inspiration to shoot bodies of water came from the ephemeral nature that follows them, and she notes, “it changes every second, and each place has a different alchemy of water. When you look at the image, you can tell it’s from a different place.”
Her scientific nature dared her to explore further, which came in the freestyle form of light on long exposure and zoom. This began ARTJEDI1’s transition into multilayer art.
With her mixed Middle-Eastern heritage, she would pay close attention to the Iraq war – which has arguably inspired some of her most significant works. “In Iraq, 130 women were massacred, and the next day, there was a massacre in a school in Pakistan by the Taliban. I made a memorial for them that kickstarted largescale works about war, causes of women in certain societies, things that never sat right with me.”
From here, cultural and inequity connotations intertwine in ARTJEDI1’s art, “that became part of my work and led to this exploration of identity, memory and time.”
Besides being an evocative artist, she’s a supportive pillar of the NFT community. Respected by artists and collectors, her groups have been a lifeline to many. “In 2017, I founded the Artists’ Project Space, a peer-to-peer support and learning group… it went from six people in my living room to renting a 6,000 square-foot warehouse as it became the biggest artist-led contemporary art gallery space until December 2020.”
After this, she created the NFT Collab Club, a melting pot for creatives involved in all various art forms. The club promotes a close community and a desire for each other’s success. Currently, ARTJEDI1 is a SuperRare artist, Nifty Gateway Publisher, Visual Arts Ambassador 22 for KO, and Curator Equal Bytes for Makersplace.
