After showcasing his toy faces offline at his first solo show in Delhi, digital artist Amrit Pal Singh is all set to continue with his ‘The Toy Face Tour’ exhibition at Method Kalaghoda, Mumbai from June 8-25, before moving on to Bengaluru. The visual artist and 3D illustrator shot to fame in 2021 when he minted his first NFT — Frida Toy Face — which sold for 3.9 ETH. Since then, his collection of Toy Faces & Toy Rooms have resulted in over 94 NFTs and 384+ ETH in primary sales.
In his latest exhibition, Singh is showcasing a physical toy room featuring a collection of seven new Toy Faces, paying tribute to art legends such as MF Husain, Salvador Dali and Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, among others, along with a presentation of his previous Toy Faces. Edited excerpts from an interview:
You have shown your work offline for the first time. Tell us about the feedback you received after the exhibition in Delhi?
This is my first solo exhibition. Prior to this, I had participated in group shows where most of the artwork was displayed digitally on screen. For this exhibition, we ensured that the experience is tangible. The digital art was printed on canvas and apart from that, I made a physical life-sized toy room with all the furniture I designed from scratch. Many viewers who were familiar with my work were able to have a tangible experience around my art.
How distinct is the experience of online and offline exhibitions?
Both mediums have their pros and cons. During the pandemic, presenting my work digitally definitely gave it a global platform where anybody from around the world could see my work. That’s something I absolutely love and it’s my preferred medium. However, with an offline show, there is a tangible experience that gives you a more long-lasting impression and that was quite new for me. With this show, I also opened up a lot of new audiences to my work. Many people from the traditional art community visited the show and it got written about, which in turn helped bring in new audiences who don’t necessarily engage with digital art.
Tell us about your Toy Faces.
I started with Toy Faces in 2020 but then I was just doing commissioned artwork without knowing much about NFTs. In 2021, when I first put out a toy face as an NFT, I received a very good response from my clients. They had known about the project and then I was commissioned by a lot of companies like Google and Netflix. That community knew me and were excited to see me doing NFTs.
How has the NFT art space shaped your journey as an artist?
I come from a design background. I was getting a lot of commissioned projects for the toy faces in 2020 without NFTs, but once I entered the NFT art space, the clients became collectors. It developed into an artistic expression where I would make toy faces of people who either personally inspired me or whose likeness I wanted to project in my style. That practice developed because of NFTs and I got to know more about the art world.
How do you choose the people whose toy face you want to design?
Picking a toy face to make is very personal to me. If you see the ones I have made so far, they don’t stir only one kind of interest. It depends on some of the people or stories that have inspired me when I was growing up or as an adult. For instance, I had made toy faces of the French music band Daft Punk and after that people expected I would make more music toy faces but then I did a Malala toy face. I am not trying to build an audience in a particular genre. It’s personal for me.
There was a lot of buzz around the NFT art space but now it seems to have died down a bit. Your comment.
A lot of the ups and downs which people hear about NFT projects are more to do with trading projects. There is a sub-culture of artists like me who are creating art such as the toy faces. I feel that sector was not hit that bad with the crypto crash. How I see it is that there was an initial hysteria when a lot of people wanted to jump in it but even at that time, it wasn’t that easy to sell NFTs or make money out of it. Now I feel it’s coming to a sort of balance. Now, collectors want to buy art from people who are here for the long haul and know what they are doing. I think they are getting pickier but that’s probably a good thing.
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