First Gallery Representation
As I began writing the story behind the 'First Gallery Representation' Origin Moon, I realized how much more underpinned that event. There were critical, life altering revelations which led up to my decision to solicit the top figurative gallery in Chicago. 🧵 #Gazers1000 pic.twitter.com/VQfYbEgbwt
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
I'm not ready to share this story the way it needs to be told, if I'm to tell it completely. The life altering event wasn't gallery representation. The life altering event came a short time before when I learned that I'd been lied to my whole life. I wasn't who I thought I was. pic.twitter.com/hAWtlK4dMn
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
Some scientists believe who we are, what a self is, is just the stories we tell, influenced by the stories we are told. So what happens after learning critical stories we were told about ourselves since birth are a lie? https://t.co/imfVe12t60 pic.twitter.com/aTIyOGeUrx
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
I remember the moment in 2004 when I was driving to work and I got into the left turn lane instead of going straight. In that moment, I'd decided not to be me anymore. I decided to begin my fight with every powerful instinct toward fear that my own mind had evolved to that point. pic.twitter.com/x9j2qStSJi
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
If who I was wasn't true, if all that had shaped who I was had been determined by a false premise, then I could choose who I'd be from then on. I could throw out the old story I was told of who I was. I could exit fear. I could enter bravery. Hell, what stopped me before? pic.twitter.com/Mz2cbF0QEX
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
Pardon my vagueness, but I must be careful about when & how I explain these matters in detail as it impacts others. You get the general idea, but I'd warn not to make assumptions or guesses. The circumstances here are quite unique, I've never met anyone with a similar background. pic.twitter.com/3wQarYaRxm
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
My first order of business would be sending my portfolio, unsolicited, to what I considered the top figurative gallery in Chicago, Ann Nathan Gallery. I knew nothing of proper protocol. But having visited the space previously, I could imagine my work on those cavernous walls. pic.twitter.com/qWto5uuffG
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
I printed my work in a binder, created a CD Rom accompaniment, which slickly auto-played the contents of my website. And I put a sticker on the mailing envelope, so they would be confronted with my work and be able to decide which pile to place my submission. pic.twitter.com/ui0cQOOHN7
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
I shipped it next day delivery and to my amazement, I got a call the next day. Roughly paraphrasing – "Maaaaaatt, we have SOME interest in your work. Would you be able to come to the gallery this week for us to have a chat?" pic.twitter.com/CwXuS0CQjN
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
So I had my first meeting with Ann Nathan, who took me into the back storage area and we sat down and chatted about art. I'd brought along a layered resin box to show her, which she first thought was a hologram, as she'd never seen anything like it. pic.twitter.com/AC7j2bciwH
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
Ann always felt these were prototypes for something greater that I'd make one day. I still feel my dimensional paintings are in prototype form, but thanks to advancements in technology, specifically the metaverse, I feel they're getting closer to what I'd first seen in a dream. pic.twitter.com/hpIBnbacH1
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
The same day I dropped a U-Haul full of work to the gallery, Ann made my first sale for me, finding a collector for "The Funeral of Peter Pan," a large oil painting at 8 feet wide by 6 feet high. It was bitter sweet, only because I really had wanted to see this work hung there.❤️ pic.twitter.com/RdK3elXtE7
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
Before leaving the gallery that "drop off" day, I asked Ann questions about having a contract with buyers for future sale royalties and being able to borrow work in the case of a retrospective. Again, I was young, naïve, a little full of myself, and had no sense for protocol. pic.twitter.com/4TMmerZIUs
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
Amused, she told me "that's just not the way things are done." I accepted this at the time, but I held in my heart that the way things were done by the world I was born into would be changing one day with our new generation that thought about things differently. pic.twitter.com/pGolMtmwE7
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
Ann retired in 2016. I was very honored to have older works hung one last time in her closing show. I was in the midst of becoming an exclusively digital artist. Somehow, the gallery's closing freed me & ignited a fire to pursue all I have since. https://t.co/EwPGzbIdeZ pic.twitter.com/VAcCEKbpwB
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
In the context of my identity crisis in the Summer of 2004, being believed in by Ann Nathan was an incredible boost to that lost 23 year old. Her belief gave me the confidence that I could later leave the art business, build myself as a human & artist, and return for the better. pic.twitter.com/kQ6yz3NEU0
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
I took a decade to grow, leaving a few years later. When I returned to the "art world" I wouldn't be met being told "this is not the way things are done." I would be part of the #cryptoart movement, helping a new world understand the way things are going to be moving forward. pic.twitter.com/dEZTEOyWbb
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
I have so much gratitude to Ann, her family, our collectors, and her staff, who gave me the very best of experiences for what being represented by a well curated gallery meant at the time and for many years. The seed of her belief in me then continues to radiate outward today. pic.twitter.com/rWGhxLF4JX
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
When I look at these rings & reflect, I see the entirety of the self I chose to become. At the core, I see confusion; my loss of identity. On the whole, I see the definition of antifragile. I see the consequence of truth. I see me; that change isn't just possible, but necessary. pic.twitter.com/knyoPtCDRl
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
And I see the core of why I believe in trustless systems. But here, in this community, if you can conduct yourself in ways to give another human a reason to trust, rather than fall deeper into trustlessness, that should be our way. Human to human, we must be better to one another pic.twitter.com/OUbrmLyg2U
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
All #Gazers1000 with the "First Gallery Representation" Origin Moon will be celebrating today – and some with longer "celebration window" traits will continue the next couple days. You can watch the living artworks here: https://t.co/yOeKMbQlSM
— MattKane.eth 🎨 (@MattKaneArtist) July 17, 2022
