Robek

CURIOS AND AI-READY

“Wearing more than one hat, Robek has established himself as a respected artist and activist. Despite amassing a plethora of acclaim, his feet remain firmly planted on solid ground alongside his peers.”

A multipotentialite, Robek is an esteemed artist, collector, curator, and thought leader on the blockchain. His interest in art was born from the vibrantly colored womb of nineties cartoons. Inspired by the likes of ‘Dragonball Z’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’ he was creating three webcomics a week by the time he was a senior in high school.

First poking around the NFT space in 2017, Robek was one of the artists featured in the ‘Curio Cards’ collection that was minted in May 2017. Honored to be in the company of artists like Daniel Friedman and Marisol Vengas, Robek created the first animated GIF NFT on Ethereum.

Although he gained his ticket into the space as an artist, Robek always had a genuine interest in the operational aspect of the blockchain. Working alongside a friend on websites, social tokens, and the creation of a Discord wallet bridge boosted his skill set and helped him land professional gigs in the space.

Will it be beneficial to web3 if more traditional artists and collectors are onboarded? Robek shares: “I’m a bit on the fence. I think more art collectors would be very beneficial as there are only a few supporting the entire space at the moment, but I have concerns. They would need to adapt to the culture instead of forcing legacy art models – and artists should enter the space for the love of creating art without an expectation of striking it rich. It comes with hard work.”

As much as curation serves an important purpose, over-curation is detrimental to emerging artists. Having attained a deft understanding of the general audience, Robek is dedicated to boosting artist visibility. One of his most celebrious efforts includes building a website, pulling all the content tagged as anime on Foundation onto it, and sorting it in an easy-to-navigate manner.

It is not uncommon to fear that the emergence of AI will desolate the art scene. Despite his traditional roots, Robek has spent a lot of time dabbling in Artificial Intelligence. He foresees astute artists using AI as a source of inspiration rather than relying on it to do all the work.

Wearing more than one hat, Robek has established himself as a respected artist and activist. Despite amassing a plethora of acclaim, his feet remain firmly planted on solid ground alongside his peers.