Swedish American artist and activist.

EQUALITY OF RIGHTS (solo show) 
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
Sept. 8 - Oct. 15, 2022

Artist, former rocket scientist, and perpetual freedom seeker using guerrilla performance to reimagine how we compensate women for their labor.

I am committed to the love evolution. Through manufacturing culture, poetry, paintings, songs, fashion and sneakers, I leverage the power of art.

Jerome Lagarrigue is an award-winning artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from Paris, he moved to the United States in 1992, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. Lagarrigue’s masterful and evocative paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world. His work is in the permanent collection of major institutions including the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In 2017, Lagarrigue’s solo exhibition, The Tipping Point, which included paintings depicting fictional riot zones was critically acclaimed in his solo exhibition at Lazarides Gallery in 2017.  Equally sought after in the worlds fine art and popular culture, in 2010 Lagarrigue was one of a hundred artists to have been personally selected by Georges Lucas to participate on an exclusive project commemorating the original Star Wars trilogy. Georges Lucas also subsequently purchased the original art for his personal collection.

Often referred to as the “Cyborg”, Lans King is a master of multiple genres: from digital and conceptual works to paintings. His artworks whether physical, digital or both are connected to the microchip capsule that he implanted in his hand: he wanted to explore the concept of “giving parts of the artist and artistic self to the audience and world” to a level that no other artist has done before thus exploring the borderlines of (his) physical possibilities and digital worlds.

I have a passion for creating immersive art experiences by combining my physical art with digital to create transcending experience between worlds.

Mia Christou is an artist born in Hertfordshire, UK to a Greek Cypriot father and English mother ~ grew up painting and making a mess in a house of culture clash. She has a BA Hons from the University of Surrey  in Drama & English. She has lived in Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York and now in Los Angeles. Painting is her solace, the escape route and the channel to whisper, suggest, rant, blather and proclaim loudly and freely in this ever-shrinking world.  She works mainly with oils in her travels with her paintbrush. She’s the relentless Escape Artist. 

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We are excited to showcase our first drop with unique art NFTs from curator and artist Cesar Lopez. Born in 1991 in Guatemala, he is an artist living and working in Kansas City and received his BFA from the Kansas City Arts Institute in 2019. At a young age, his family immigrated to the United States. The trauma of “not belonging” he experienced as a Latinx artist and immigrant created the basis for his art and curatorial practice. Merging formal elements of painting and personal history, he creates a fictional space that he oftentimes refers to as the “3rd space” - a space with abstract and colorful elements based on geometrical shapes of fictitious flags mixed with colorful elements creating dynamic compositions. Lopez wants to invite the audience into his “3rd space” that has no boundaries and no national identity where everyone is welcome to join and participate.

Contract Address: <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x661bb0754fb549058d7546eb5059525ac9db1b9d" target="_blank">0x66...1b9d</a>

A signed, authentic and unique digital artwork. You will own the digital creation verified through the blockchain.

Ownership of digital asset

The full non-commercial right to this digital artwork. Upon purchase, this artwork will be transferred to your digital XVERSO wallet (provided by us to you).

Full non-commercial right

The right to download the full-sized creation to display or even  print for non-commercial use.

Downloadable full-size creation

With the purchase of these NFTs, you will obtain VIP status on XVERSO (which will include first look at new collections, exclusive event invitations among many other perks).

XVERSO VIP Access

Spotlight: Artist(s)' Story

We are excited to showcase our first drop with unique art NFTs from curator and artist Cesar Lopez. Born in 1991 in Guatemala, he is an artist living and working in Kansas City and received his BFA from the Kansas City Arts Institute in 2019. At a young age, his family immigrated to the United States. The trauma of “not belonging” he experienced as a Latinx artist and immigrant created the basis for his art and curatorial practice. Merging formal elements of painting and personal history, he creates a fictional space that he oftentimes refers to as the “3rd space” - a space with abstract and colorful elements based on geometrical shapes of fictitious flags mixed with colorful elements creating dynamic compositions. Cesar will be live with us with Janine Yancey, founder of Emtrain. Emtrain is a Unicorn culture tech company based out of Silicon Valley that features a learning platform to provide education, expert guidance and analytics to build healthier, more inclusive workplaces. Janine is a pioneer and visionary in healthy workplace culture, including online education in diversity and inclusion.

Live with Artist Cesar Lopez and Janine Yancey

The Art of Belonging: Encountering identity through art, soccer, and technology

We are more than thrilled to announce our next auction with artists and activists Michele Pred and Autumn Breon. This is a very special event for us, as we strongly support their perspectives on gender and racial equality. Michele is a Swedish American conceptual artist based in Oakland, California whose practice includes sculpture, assemblage, and performance. Her work uncovers the cultural and political meaning behind everyday objects, with a concentration on feminist themes such as equal pay, reproductive rights, and personal security. Michele has been represented by the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York since 2004. Her work is part of the permanent collection at various museums including at the Berkeley Art Museum. Michele received a Pro-Choice Leadership Award from Personal PAC, Chicago, and has shown at Jack Shainman Gallery as an original member of the first artist-run super PAC, For Freedoms. Michele has exhibited both nationally and internationally in various critically acclaimed shows. Autumn Breon works to reimagine global narratives through art and creativity. A graduate of Stanford University, she studied Aeronautics & Astronautics and researched aeronautical astrobiology applications for NASA. Autumn went on to advocate for global access to affordable education in South Central Los Angeles, India, and South Africa. During her frequent travels to the African continent, Autumn examined contemporary African art throughout the Diaspora and its impact. Based in Los Angeles, Autumn creates and curates art to communicate ideas related to liberation, the politics of identity, and Diasporic memory. Her work has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, Aspen Institute, TED, the Obama Foundation, and LA Magazine.

We are thrilled to announce our auction with artists and female activists Michele Pred and Autumn Breon. The artists will share their perspectives on feminism, equal rights, and gender equality in conversation with collector Dwight Smith. We are auctioning 8 unique NFTs - part of the sales will be donated to the initiative the Art of Equal Pay to confront and combat pay gaps for visual artists. Another part will benefit refugees in the Jabal El-Hussein Camp in Jordan.

Live with artists Autumn Breon and Michele Pred

Image Equality: The Art of Equal Pay

Halim Flowers is a self-taught visual artist, spoken word performer, businessman, and author of eleven published non-fiction works. Born into poverty in Washington DC, Halim discovered drug dealing as a way out of poverty and dependency of those who let him down. In 1997, as a minor, Halim Flowers was arrested and wrongfully sentenced to two life sentences in Washington, DC. His experiences aired on HBO in the Emmy award-winning documentary Thug Life in DC. Released under a new juvenile life resentencing law, Halims’ 2019 freedom was documented by Kim Kardashian-West’s The Justice Project film. In 2020, Flowers’ TEDx Talk, Criminal Justice Reform, and his prolific production and exhibition of his visual art, e.g. The Museum of Modern Art’s Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration exhibit, continue to advance his mission to promote love among all humans. Halim uses iconography and portraiture to depict perceptions of wealth and commercial success contrasted against images of fear, poverty, and oppression. Halim is an ardent advocate for human rights and is best known for his quote, “Love is the Antibody”.

Spotlight: Artist Story

We are excited to announce our collaboration with spoken-word and self-taught visual artist Halim Flowers. Born into poverty in Washington DC, Halim discovered drug dealing as a way out of poverty and dependency of those who let him down. As a teenager, at the age of 15 he was incarcerated as an accomplice to an intended crime and received a double-life sentence as a juvenile for 22 years in prison. In prison, he discovered new ways of expression in the visual arts and spoken word. Often he uses iconography and portraiture to depict perceptions of wealth and commercial success contrasted against images of fear, poverty, and oppression. Halim has been featured in various group and solo exhibitions including at MOMA PS1 and is represented by DTR Modern Gallery and Stella Jones Gallery.

Live with artist Halim Flowers

The Love Connection

Jerome Lagarrigue is an award-winning artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from Paris, he moved to the United States in 1992, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. Lagarrigue’s masterful and evocative paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world. His work is in the permanent collection of major institutions including the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In 2017, Jerome’s solo exhibition in London, The Tipping Point, which included paintings depicting fictional riot zones was critically acclaimed. Equally sought after in the worlds fine art and popular culture, in 2010, Lagarrigue was one of a hundred artists to have been personally selected by Georges Lucas to participate on an exclusive project commemorating the original Star Wars Trilogy. Georges Lucas also subsequently purchased the original art for his personal collection. In 1998, the documentary Jerome Lagarrigue: portrait of an artist, directed by Richard Mothes and Anne-Laurence Bizeau, was selected for the sixth International Documentary Competition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

XVERSO is excited to present
the world-premier
of Jerome’s first NFTs.

We are excited to auction the world premiere of 3 unique NFTs by award-winning painter Jerome Lagarrigue. These unique digital images are Jerome’s first NFTs. They were created from original paintings from his series The Tipping Point presented in his solo exhibition at Lazarides Gallery in London in 2017. Paintings from The Tipping Point series are now in several major art collections around the world including the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Live with artist Jerome Lagarrigue

The Art of Rebellion

Often referred to as the “Cyborg”, Lans King is a master of multiple genres: from digital and conceptual works to paintings. His artworks whether physical, digital or both are connected to the microchip capsule that he implanted in his hand: he wanted to explore the concept of “giving parts of the artist and artistic self to the audience and world” to a level that no other artist has done before thus exploring the borderlines of (his) physical possibilities and digital worlds. To further enhance this connection, Lans King's NFT Capsules are works of art connected to the microchip capsule implanted in the artist’s hand. They are composed of layers of code and animation that recall the style of the artist’s physical artworks. They “encapsulate” the themes of the King’s ongoing project called “The Hyperreality Show.” Hyperreality is the inability to distinguish between real and a simulation of the real. He chose videos as MP4 format but within the videos you find traditional art studies such as studies on nudes, landscapes or flowers that he moves into a new physical and and space context: captured in his capsule frame, looked at from a distant - the “Cyborg’s perspective”. 

We are excited to present our world premier of XVERSO with Cyborg artist, Lans King, the first human artist who connected himself to the blockchain via a capsule in his hand. In this auction, we will auction 3 unique NFT Capsules composed of layers of code and animation that recall the style of the artist's physical artworks of his ongoing project "The Hyperreality Show". Hyperreality is the inability to distinguish between the real and a simulation of the real. The NFT will be in in MP4 format, but within the videos you find traditional art studies such as studies on nudes, landscapes and flowers.

Live with artist Lans King

From the Perspective of a Cyborg

The images today are part of mixed memories of watching soccer and seeing many people in the world through this lens. In the image, you can spot an ornate frame that is reminiscent of a small television set and its’ static, which allowed us to travel the world as we stayed home in Guatemala.

Mundial: Final 1998

This image is tied to a memory of attending local soccer games in Guatemala. I specifically remember seeing groups of people moving together wearing the same colors and becoming one large entity. At that time, I felt as if I was part of this group as we walked out of the stadium through town.

Mundial: Verde Amarella

Mundial: Verde Amarella II

In this work, I've tried many of my mixed emotions about coming to America. The red white and blue wall has a narrow opening with a deep space on the other side. Along with these soccer players, we are found considering our chances of being on the other side.

Mundial: Rojo, Blanco y Azul

I’ve revisited the idea of the frame as a television set or a lens to view these characters through. Allowing for a wider perspective.

Mundial: Rojo Vivo

In this image, I find myself considering the hero characters that I looked up to as a young person. Admiring their cooperation and working together for a common goal.

Mundial: Rojo Vivo II

In this work, the common goal is draped in the red white and blue, symbolic of the American Flag. If you notice the characters are set up to travel across this flag-like item, which will propel them across the image.

Mundial: Rojo, Azul y Blanco II

In this image, we can see the characters stacked on top of these flag-like slabs. I’ve considered this the strength of a nation that upholds their status and value to their nation.

Mundial: Equipo Nacional

On the contrast to the other image. This is the flag image, engulfing the characters, creating an ominous relationship with the national identity that is part of being a character for your country.

Mundial: Equipo Nacional II

This image carries the dynamic composition and emotion of the many soccer games I watched and was a part of. I sought to fill the work with visual energy and vibrancy.

Mundial: Equipo Nacional III

Equal Pay Colloboration between Michele Pred and Autumn Breon.

The Art of Equal Pay

100% Equal Pay

Altered 1 USD Bill in LGBTQ colors to support the "Art of Equal Pay" Initiative.

Pride Equal Pay

Animated gif from a physical vintage purse with electroluminescent wire.

My Body My Choice

Image taken during a photoshoot with the artist in Sweden.

Bans Off Our Bodies

The artworks are related to Autumn’s most recent performance: Don’t Use Me: Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a valley cut into sandstone and granite rock in southern Jordan where Autumn created her video performance of examining the relationship between two constructs: freedom and time, specifically through the lens of a Black Woman’s body.
For the performance, Autumn collaborated with women from different sectors of Amman (capital of Jordan), including the team of the National Center for Culture and Arts as well as refugee women from Palestine and Syria. The performance will premiere in Inglewood, California, on August 12, 2022, and XVERSO is excited to be the first to showcase these unique works to the world. 30% of the sales will benefit the Jabal El-Hussein Refugee Camp in Jordan. The camp is one of four camps established in Jordan after 1948 to accommodate refugees who were displaced from Palestine as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.