Banned, blocked, cast out from the crypto country club, I ask you is there anything more appealing to a collector of Art than that? Well I answer for you, yes truly visionary and beautiful creation. Max Osiris has both of these things going for him. But let's not stop there. Look through Max's collection of artwork hosted on his own site (https://maxosiris.com/). This collection of artwork will give you chills, make you laugh and inspire a feeling that only the most avant-garde Art can hope to invoke. Max isn’t just a crypto artist nor is he just an artist; he is a visionary. One on a level far higher than that of the greatest artists living right now. Yes I am saying that it isn’t a lie when I tell you: Max’s work is the best I have ever witnessed. Part of me wants to blind myself so that its beauty can be the last thing I’ve ever seen. “But why?” do you ask? You may see merely digital collage with use of others' artwork chucked in. Well, you haven’t looked hard enough or merely refuse to see genius.
The work Max chooses for his artwork is perfectly balanced but it doesn’t stop there. Some of the work in my eyes I see the visions of a deep and perfect dream. A language and visuals that there simply aren't words to capture. A vibration of the perfect nature of the universe, an impossible thing to express, yet perfectly captured in an image.
Looking at Max’s artwork gives me the feeling of my first acid trip and the meaning of my DMT experience all at once. It shows a template for design of humanity’s modern creation all the references at once presented in a way understandable way to the viewer.
Suddenly the rage from other artists at Max’s banning has become crystal clear in its meaning. Understandable in its voracity and vigour. Now I see Max is one of the best things to happen to crypto art since a tokenuri.
The more you try to silence something the more strength it gains, the more you push it down the worse you look. I can spend a whole book talking about Max’s artwork but the best thing that you can possibly do is read the below interview with the artist.
But before we get into it to view Max's full collection on the BAE click HERE
What is your background in art how did you get into crypto art
In 2002 I walked into the dean’s office at the University of Florida College of Law and told her I am quitting. Without even trying to dissuade me she asked what I was going to do after. I pulled up my website and showed her the Photoshop artworks I had made - mostly of my then-girlfriend at the time. After seeing them she said “yeah, you should do that”. I felt validated, yet it would take me another 16 years to really realize that vision.
In 2009 I had gone to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam after eating some truffles (this was my very first magic mushroom experience - they had just been outlawed yet there was a truffle loophole in the law). That afternoon I saw the starry nights swirl and dance and all the art came alive in a way that I had never experienced before - except maybe when I was a child.
Then in 2015 I had a float tank session that changed my life. I was doing online marketing at the time, living a pretty cushy life, but at the end of my two hour float, I got the message very clear that it was time to sell everything and go into the unknown. Over the course of the next year, I sold the business and got rid of everything I had. And when I had nothing left - and I remember sitting at Cafe Gratitude in Venice, CA - I said to myself “I’ve gotten myself into quite a quandary, i have $7 to my name, and I have no idea how I will get myself out of this situation”… and then I said “I am going to ART my way out of this!”. I had a small eclectic show 2 weeks later on Abbot Kinney, where I lit a piece of ceremonial copal at 7:07pm on February 29, 2016 and christened myself an “artist,” full on, forever. It felt like knighting myself into a path that would take me to some very strange corners of the human experience over the next several years.
While couch surfing around Miami around 2017 I became obsessed with cryptocurrencies. I spent 3 months or so diving into and out of the world of crypto to attempt to figure out what it was all about, how it was culturally significant, and how I could get involved. All I did was go to coffee shops, read tons of articles online, and even tried to figure out how to launch an ICO (but honestly i knew i didn't have the tech background or even a differentiator to make anything worthwhile). I devoured everything I could about blockchains and then let everything I learned simmer and marinate over the next 9 months.
At the end of summer of 2018 I learned about Rare Art Labs, SuperRare, and Known Origin. I knew immediately that “crypto art” is where I needed to be. I didn't quite have the confidence as an artist that I thought I needed, but I said to myself definitively “that doesn't matter, I need to be in this game.” I saw the massive potential and knew that being one of the earliest artists in the space would be a massive advantage once the market started to mature.
I started tokenizing in August 2018 and have since sold hundreds and hundreds of artworks that span a wide variety of styles, techniques, subject matters - classical to contemporary, conceptual, psychedelic - you name it.
What artists inspire you most?
That’s a deep question for me. I get inspiration from some of the least likely sources, whatever is visually breaking through the “drudgery of the same” at any moment in time intrigues me to no end and I often borrow, sample, and build on top of the structure that I see embedded in someone else’s work.
I would say Warhol & Basquiat, not only for their groundbreaking techniques and prowess, but how they danced within the zeitgeist of the time. Being a “personality” that becomes inseparable from the art is something that they pioneered at the advent of the “POP age.”
I am inspired by unknown street artists. I love Syntek & Lipsmack because they have such unique modern styles.
Robness Cyberpop (who I got to meet at my LA Crypto Art show) is one of my favourite people in the crypto art space - not the least for his outsized and unabashed personality on social media. ilan katin for his dedication to the craft and his continuous evolution within his style.
Richie Culver blows my mind from a conceptual standpoint. Marco Brambilla inspired my “psychowave” series with his unrelenting visuals that borrow from the mythologies of classical art.
Why do you create digital art?
There is no other medium as immediately rewarding as digital art. I can take a photo of some aspect of something, combine it with a completely different aesthetic, go back and forth in styles (chop them up), put the result through an AR filter, capture the results, go back and forth between a number of devices, and keep playing with it until something completely unexpected shows up. The experimental possibilities that open up in the realm of digital art is unmatched in any other medium.
What is your process of creation?
Most of my pieces start with a base layer of a subject I want to explore or a specific visual that I feel like I can expand stylistically and play with. I call my work "transdimensional" - and by that I mean i like to place every layer and level of the object through a sort of disentanglement - break apart the “thing” in my own psyche, and play with sub-meanings of its own aspects - weave them in and out of itself. To me I see this as a spiritual practice in a sense - to deconstruct as many layers of a symbol or visual that I can, and then play within and without - that when that piece is done, it marks a significant departure from whence it started. I never know where the journey will take me. It becomes a journey into my mind, how I perceive what I perceive - the layers of meaning that are interwoven, and the rebirth of that concept into a new form through the process of play and experimentation, to - as Terrence McKenna says “push the envelope of creativity and [visual] language [of humanity]” forward.
There’s a very wide trawler net of experimental blunders and their resulting processes and styles that I draw upon that has been placed there by 20+ years of “doing this.”
And the best part is that i don’t need a workshop or a warehouse to store all the tools and toys. They exist forever in my mind, scattered across vast minefields of experiential play.
Is there any meaning you want to get across with your artwork?
That we’re all a play of forms. That everything is optional. That even how we perceive something becomes an interesting study of the self, essentially. The [thought & art] forms that we’re used to seeing become dull by repetition and start to lose their appeal, vibrancy, they start to recede backwards into history.
My hopes echo the last lines of The Great Gatsby, really - to shine brighter than i know how to, even - and sneak underneath the 3D layer of the 1’s and 0’s that vibrate from silicone chip to silicone chip onto LED panels across the world - and to touch something in the heart of the person seeing what I create - to give them a momentary brush with their own knowing, their own perceiving consciousness, to cause something that seems a glitch, and an opening - and to what that is - [the description starts to fail language itself].
Has crypto art impacted your life?
Absolutely. In the summer of last year I decided to become a “full time cryptoartist.” I haven’t really heard of that being a thing and didn’t quite know if that was even possible so I decided to hoist the title upon myself and see if it can be realized through my personal life experience. That I could become this thing that I felt could be possible. To create art straight from the heart unbeholden to anyone or any existing power structures, and make it available on decentralized platforms, that when people resonate with the piece, I am able to provide for my own living expenses through that. There is no purer form of expression for me.
It’s still such a nascent space and at such early stages (compared to the large established “art market” as we know it).
Yet I know of no other thing on this planet that comes to fulfilling my dream and touches on so many aspects of what i care about - which is mostly “freedom of expression” and the ability to create and share, and become part of the storyline of what I consider to be the most significant socioeconomic & creative opportunity / development of this era.
Any advice for people thinking about joining crypto art?
One of my favourite quotes is “what does the grain of sand have to teach another about the sun?” and by that I mean I’m usually not one for taking or giving advice. In a sense I love how weird and complicated it still is for people to understand, grasp, or even begin to play with - and that gives it a magic that I truly love about it.
I remember people asking me at the LA Art Show what they need to do to get started and I would basically just smile at them. I knew there was nothing to teach. If the pull of the magic of this thing we call “crypto art” becomes irresistible, they’ll figure out how to play. And hopefully have a lot of fun with it. Having my creations validated economically on the blockchain is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life right now - as well as seeing my sphere of influence grow, ever so slowly, day by day, piece by piece, tweet by tweet, into something that I can look upon as a whole - and feel very accomplished as an artist and as a human.
Anything else you would like to add?
A thank you to all my collectors, whether they hodl one piece or a sizable collection. My hope is to keep pushing the boundaries of creativity and to keep putting my art out there, for it to resonate with a growing audience, so that more people can jump into the magic of this space.
