NFT Spotlight: Mirage Gallery and the AI Artists
Early NFT Art and the Crypto Native Collection by August Rosedale and his AI Artists Alejandro and Taylor
This weekend I listened to a new episode of Kevin Rose’s new podcast called Proof. It’s all about getting to know the founders, creators, and innovators in the crypto and NFT space. I highly recommend giving it a listen if you don’t know it already!
This particular episode was with a guy named August Rosedale. I didn’t know about him beforehand but I’m already a big fan of him and his work.
Mirage Gallery and the AI artists
August is the founder of Mirage Gallery and created two AI artists named Alejandro and Taylor in 2018. Trained on a large set of photos and art, they were taught to create their own unique masterpieces.
The early works from Alejandro and Taylor were minted before they released their first collection. They created 10 works, each of which could be minted in 100 copies. However, only 59 in total were ever minted. You can find all of them on OpenSea although the owners don’t seem very willing to sell.
Their first collection consists of only 43 1-of-1 works, but the plan is to have each of the two artists create approximately 100 pieces. The second collection from Alejandro and Taylor will be out soon. I don’t personally own any of them yet, but I’ve added a few of my favorites above.
Less than a month ago, a new AI-created collection called Crypto Native came out of Mirage Gallery. Its 980 unique pieces sold out almost instantly. You can see a few pieces from the collection below.
What’s really cool and special about this collection is that each piece develops with each sale, and lock in place after going through 10 of these phases. There’s no reverting back and no way to get around it. The sales price must be at least 20% higher than the previous sale for the transformation to take place though, so it can be avoided by getting a little creative here.
Closing thoughts
I have a real affinity for NFT art that’s original, creative, early, scarce, and with inspiring artists or creators behind it. The art from Mirage Gallery checks all these boxes. I don’t personally own anything from these collections, but I could easily see myself pick up one or two from the affordable Crypto Native collection or whatever comes out of Mirage Gallery next. I’m definitely going to follow along and stay up to date. If you want to do the same, here are some useful links:
Mirage Gallery on Twitter, Mirage Gallery’s Discord, August Rosedale on Twitter, Alejandro on Twitter, and Taylor on Twitter.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you own a Mirage Gallery piece yourself? Would you like to? Drop a comment or reach out to me directly.