1 Space name / team name:
BLAKKAT
2 Name of primary contact:
Jean Jaques Ribi (JJRibi) Fine Artist, creative director, marketing expert, $rare holder
3 Names of additional Space admins:
Mentalist 420 Curator, Collector, Community Builder
Cristina Grasso, Curator, Art Dealer, Art Advisor
4 SuperRare username(s) of everyone who will be a Space admin:
5 Short bio of you and/or your team:
Cristina Grasso
Art dealer and curator, specialized in Modern and Contemporary Art, advisor and manager for some of the most renowned private collections in Europe, counting artists the likes of Picasso, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Monet, Magritte, etc.
Worked for the most exclusive collectors in the art world with clients in Saudi Arabia, Europe, USA and UK.
Former Director of Gam Gallery Monaco and Marlborough Gallery Monaco, two of Europeâs former finest art galleries
Recognized for managing the trade of Monet first impressionist painting âPrise vue Monacoâ to Monacoâs Prince Albert, considered one of the most relevant private transaction in the past decades.
Mentalist420
Mentalist, as the name suggests, is a man of mystery. Little details are known about his life and true identity. Impossible to separate the man from the myth, tales of his persona are whispered through the backchannels of the metaverse, often attributing him with qualities bordering the supernatural. Is he human? Alien? An advanced AI? His paranormal feats keep us guessing.
We know for certain he was in the crypto space very early, his outstanding collection of over 700 1/1 is legendary as well as his eye for discovering new talents.
We know his synaptic influence reaches very high in the hierarchies, enough to meet one of the fathers of Ethereum, resulting in a famous 100 ETH art transaction.
In the NFT space he is viewed like an oracle, selflessly dispensing advises and offering patronage to whomever seeks it.
Raised 3.5 Millions during his tenure as advisor for several cryptocurrency programs.
Raised $600k under his first official program tenure with Slyguise
Countless artists owe him eternal gratitude for his guidance and many revere him in awe for never asking anything in return. A man of the people, for the people, a legion stands behind him and his credo: You win, We win
Jean Jaques Ribi
Awarded digital artist, father of Photopaint, since 2004 his work was exhibited in Galleries in Europe, USA and Latin America, as well as fine institutions the likes of MOLAA museum in Los Angeles, Contemporary Art Museum in Panama, Museum of National Identity Honduras, Art Basel Miami, etc.
https://www.jjribi.com/about.html
20 years of experience in the fine art market and an extensive network spreading across the western world, coupled with an outstanding career in advertising production, marketing and communications, having worked in projects for clients like Audi, Lamborghini, Ikea, Lufthansa, BMW etc.
His experience gives him both intimate knowledge of the art market, with close connections to many relevant digital artists, as well as the expertise to promote artists and ventures according to the highest standards in the market.
6 Website & Social Media Links:
JJRIBI:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-ribi-630611174
Cristina Grasso
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-grasso-bb781442
Mentalist 420
https://twitter.com/mentalist420
https://oncyber.io/mentxlistcrypt
7 Summary/manifesto of your Space. What is the unique value prop / elevator pitch? What type of art will you focus on? How will your Space stand out among the crowd?
Blakkat intends to be a space that bridges the traditional art market with the new digital art movement.
With a team of specialists in each sector, we strive to bring to the NFT space a new flow of collectors, artists and connections with renowned institutions.
The NFT market is still in its early phase, although still thriving, we are fully aware that the main volume of liquidity hasnât entered the space yet.
With our initiative we plan to expand the boundaries of the digital domain, reaching for the yet untouched pool of resources and potential buyers outside the space: we aim to create synergies with recognized institutions, to establish NFTs as a lasting reality in the Fine Arts world.
Blakkat sets out to be a 2 ways portal, bringing digital artists to traditional markets as well as traditional artists to the digital market. Such strategy will bring the eyes of new collectors to our space, and subsequently a fresh injection of liquidity for a sustainable long term growth
Along with this commitment, we plan to establish the Blakkat brand in the NFT space, which will serve as a platform to trace a consistent growth for our artists, offering all sorts of promotional tools, marketing strategies and assistance, granting access to our teamâs expertise for their personal projects.
8 Describe you/your teamâs experience curating and promoting artwork:
For the sake of keeping the proposal as concise as possible, we will be answering question 8 in the same statement under question Number 9
9 Describe you/your teamâs experience organizing exhibitions, making art sales, running auctions, networking with collectors, etc.
Blakkat has 2 fields of operations: the first inside the NFT space and second in the traditional fine art market:
Inside the NFT market, Mentalist420 is a renowned collector, famous for some of the most successful trades in the space, counting over 200 $ETH in sales on secondary market.
With a network of 32k followers and counting, his communication and mastery of the algorithm give him a reach of 3 Millions viewers each months.
His art threads count with thousands of participants and the highest rate of sales.
His influence is given by the unbiased and selfless dedication to the space, making him one of the most recognized and trustworthy figures in the NFT world.
Outside the space Cristina Grasso operates among the highest echelons in the fine art world, counting clients like Prince Albert, a few Saudi royals as well as the top collectors in Europe.
Former director of renowned galleries, manager of some of Europeâs most important collections, she organized and curated exhibitions for the likes of Venice Biennale and Monacoâs Yacht Club and renowned artists like Fedor Suskov and Giovanni Grifo
With over 35 years of experience in the fine arts world, Cristina has developed close relationships with important institutions and is well connected with all the main auction houses.
As virtual gallery we already established a relationship with Sothebyâs directors who are already following our project with great interest.
Jen Jaques Ribi is a skilled artist with 2 decades of experience in the art market as well as advertising, marketing and promotional strategies.
Expert in psychology of communication and social engineering, he offers a unique expertise applicable to the digital market.
The long experience as producer in advertising, art events, fashion shows and festivals, makes him a complete professional in terms of production and communication, able to singlehandedly produce and coordinate communication for any scale of event, both in the digital space as well as the physical world.
This team constitutes all together a trifecta, mastering network, knowhow and expertise, we guarantee peak performance on all aspects of our business model.
10 Are there new artists youâd like to bring into the Space in the first six months? What is your relationship to them?
These are the two artists we are considering for the first 6 months:
Ellen Sandor, one of the most influential digital artists in USAâs high society, wife of Richard Sandor, chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange, head of the renowned Sandor Art Collection.
Dear friend, she and JJRibi have exhibited together and her husband is one of his collectors.
https://www.sandor-collection.com
Lesa Amoore, famous ex top model, now celebrity fine art photographer, known for working closely with Gigi Hadid and other top show-business figures, as well as renowned brands and magazines.
She is intimate friend with JJRibi with the 2 collaborating in an art collection
Other names like Juliette Jourdain, Hannah Yata, come to mind, but most importantly, our network can virtually reach any artist, including the ones of the caliber of JR
We also have an ambitious strategy to bring about the association of NFTs to works from the great masters of â900: by offering NFTs as a means of authentication and track record for the greatest artworks of the past century, we strive to open their market to the crypto space.
Just imagine the implications that an NFT Picasso will entail, in terms of exposure, relevance and status for the NFT world
11 Are there any artists already in the CryptoArt space that you are planning to work with for this Space? Have they committed to participating yet?
In the space talks have been initiated with more than a dozen artists.
The core group of already committed artists are:
Natalie Shau: considered one of top photo artists in the world, published in Vogue, featured by Wacom, 100k followers in instagram, managed by Opera Gallery
Paul Massey: multi awarded digital artist, 30 years of experience, working for blue chip clients, 2 CG society Golden Award, 3D Total Excellence Award
Xenotrip: master 3D sculptor and animator, C4D/Redshift astounding workflow. Grown up in Middle-East , raised in a post-war dystopian environment, his creations are forged by hardship and adversities.
JJRibi: multi awarded digital artist, part of Coca Cola collection, part of Sandor Collection, digital pioneer in fine art market, formerly part of MOLAA Museum collection
Sen Paul: Self taught 3d modeler and animator, talented story teller, digital filmmaker with multiple awards in CGI, short movies and indie film festivals.
Cassiopeus**:** Digital Artist specialized in retro-punk and dark surrealism: Superrare artist, displayed in local galleries, bigger local expos like White Night and events like WOW Summit in Dubai.
https://superrare.com/cassiopeus
Many other relevant artists have expressed their interest, but are waiting for further developments before being officially included
12 Please provide any additional details you can about how you plan to operate this Space; e.g. cadence of exhibitions, auction strategy, number of artworks, other ideas for promoting your art and artists, etc.
Exhibitions wise Blakkat plans to operate along 3 main avenues, in order to keep a constant yet variated presence on the market:
1 Gallery
Organizing curated exhibitions: These are focused either on solo artists or theme oriented collectives, onboarding both established artist form NFT as well as from the fine art market.
Possible cadence: every 2 months
2 Collective
After a careful process, a curated selection of artists, defining the collectiveâs core, will have access to mint their artworks on our platform as benefit for adhering to our program
3 Auction House
Twice a year we will be organizing auctions, with the intention of attracting new top tier collectors from traditional art world.
On a recurrent basis, works from represented artists, will be submitted to auction houses and institutions
Each event will entail a full scale production, consisting in coordinated campaigns across all platforms, promotional material like professional videos and images, as well a media kit for press and mainstream media.
13 How do you plan to structure commission rates for the artists who release in your Space?
The Superrare DAO and its platform, retain reciprocally 5% and 3% commissions from primary sales, and a total of 3% on secondary sales commissions.
On top of that, spaces are allocated by default a 10% commission on primary sales, with freedom to change it in the future.
At first launch, commission structures will be set globally for each space, so all artists/releases will require the same commission structure to begin with.
Here is the internal commission structure as we envisioned for the future:
A carefully curated selection of resident artists will have fee minting access to our space, according to a scheduled minting plan. Those mints will be charged a 10% fee dedicated to maintain the space and its operations.
Gallery exhibitions will be charging 10% commissions.
The fee will include production and media plan for promotional material.
Fees for auctions toward external collectors operated from the space will amount to 20%
Fees for submitting artworks to auction houses will amount to 10%
14 To you, what is the importance of NFTs as a medium/technology? Where do you see the NFT and CryptoArt space in five years?
Blakkat considers NFTs the digital renaissance, becoming in the near future, the lead space in the art market.
NFTs will reach way beyond art itself, we know this for certain, as weâre in contact with companies developing digital jewels and tokenization for high profile watches.
We see this space as an ever expanding market that, in the near future, will be trading in all sorts of luxury goods.
15 If your Space were a cocktail or a dish, what would it be and why?
Blakkat is a dish of molecular cusine: mixing tradition with innovation, with a clean surgical methodology, we do not satisfy hunger, we provide unforgettable experiences.
16 Anything else youâd like the community to consider?
Blakkat is ultimately a crypto gallery with the soul of a collective, looking to establish the NFT space amongst the echelons of the fine art world.
Our model is focused on two of the criticalities the NFT space is yet lacking:
1- An artist oriented business model, that will favor their growth as well as offering all the tools necessary to establish their brand in the market.
2- A clear strategy to bring in fresh liquidity and higher number of collectors to the space, aware that the current artists/collectors ratio is unsustainable for the long run.
We are fully committed to make the NFT space as thriving model, bringing to the table effective solutions to impact the whole community at large.
We are prepared, hungry and ambitious, join us and support our journey!
