Step Brothers by Gavin Shapiro
Step Brothers
Bio
Hello! My name is Gavin Shapiro and I have a professional background as a motion graphics designer. I started out at The Onion in 2009, making 3D show packages for satirical news networks, and since then have worked for countless companies and clients all over the world, in both freelance and full-time-employee capacities. After almost a decade of client work I started focusing on my own body of personal work and have been making 3D looping videos ever since. I was part of an early wave of digital artists onboarded to Nifty Gateway and SuperRare in 2020 and have been minting my work as NFTs since then.
About the Work
I’ve come to realize that a lot of my work emerges from an obsession with problem-solving. I’ve spent so much time in my career making looping elements for TV show packages, so now I’m always thinking: how far can I manipulate an object or environment through space, but still come back to make it loop in the end? I am fascinated by math and geometry and tend to incorporate fractals and tesselating shapes into my work. I also always try to have fun with what I create and not take things too seriously, so there are always these dancing or wandering birds stuck in these infinite worlds. In the end it always has to be really silly but also very impossibly precise and mind-bending.
Pretty much all of my work up until a few months ago is 3D rendered, built in Cinema 4D. But lately I’ve felt a bit detached from the creation process, since the machine is rendering everything, so I’ve started to learn to draw and my latest pieces are hand drawn frame by frame. I’ve really enjoyed this shift and am excited to see where it goes.
About This Piece
For my CryptoCubes piece, I wanted to choose a CryptoCube that I could build into the environment in a natural and purposeful way, so that it was essentially the subject of the whole piece but was still hiding in plain sight. I found one that I could essentially use as a staircase, and used it as a foundation for a group of infinitely hopping penguins.
Future
NFTs gave me a huge opportunity in that it allowed me to work on art fulltime for about 2 years. It was one of the most fantastic and inspirational experiences of my life. Also, having a collector base and being the center of attention really challenged me to be very considerate about my work and inspired me to push myself as an artist. It’s also been incredible to meet so many other artists and go through this experience with them. For now I am working fulltime as a motion designer again, but still working on art and personal work in my free time, whenever I can.
I think in the future there will still be people interested in collecting digital art. The “art market” will come back. I think the 2021 cycle was definitely a bit of a bubble but I don’t think it means that interest in digital art is gone. I think too many people were speculating and only buying art because they knew they could flip it, and once there was nobody else to sell to they all got out. Once people come into the digital art market to collect art because they love it, then I think it will be harder to pry it out of their hands. In other words, once people understand that it can be an expression of identity, they’ll realize there’s limited time to find what they love and claim it for themselves.
