Is Art (2014) was part of the series of artworks that started with the essay Artworld Ethereum and that share their name with it. It exploits the exhausted art theoretical concept of nomination, underwriting it with the power of the blockchain rather than 1960s artworld consensus. It was the piece from that series that caught people’s imagination the most. Pre-dating ERC-721, and structured to be deliberately un-ownable, it existed as a smart contract that anyone (with sufficient knowledge and capital…) could interact with and change the state of.

As a kind of mid-career-retrospective take on Artworld Ethereum, Is Art Editions (2023-4) collapses the content of Artworld Etherem into the aesthetics of Is Art. It shares this retrospective impulse with Type Opposite Images and some as-yet unnanounced series.

Is Art (Token) (2023) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

Own the creative power of a crypto artist.

Is Art (Token) takes the artist’s power of nomination, of naming something as art, and delegates it to the artwork’s owner. Their assertion of its art or non-art status is secured and guaranteed by the power of the blockchain. Based on a common and understandable misunderstanding of how Is Art (2014) works, this is the first in a series of editions that inscribe ongoing and contemporary concerns onto this exemplar of a past or perhaps not yet realized blockchain artworld.

Is Art (Token, Block Height) (2023) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that is art (or not) depending on the current Ethereum block height.

Is Art (Token, Because) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art for a particular reason by its owner.

Is Art (Token, Burn) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art by its owner, but only by destroying it.

Is Art (Token, Composition) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that has several sub-tokens attached that can be arranged to nominate it as art by its owner, possibly in co-operation with other owners.

Is Art (Token, Democratic) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art (or not) by a simple majority of its owners.

Is Art (Token, Democratic Palette) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner and that displays this state using colours from Democratic Palette (2016).

Is Art (Token, Griefing) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art by any of its owners, overriding the vote of all the others.

Is Art (Token, Is X) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art by its owner for reasons that they specify using a controlled vocabulary.

Is Art (Token, Lottery) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner if they are lucky.

Is Art (Token, Nomination) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be used to nominate another token as art by its owner.

Is Art (Token, Proof-of-Work) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner on completion of a proof-of-work puzzle.

Is Art (Token, Proxy) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner and that stores uts state for everyone in the original Is Art (2014/2015).

Is Art (Token, Secret) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token that can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner in a way that is encrypted and known only to them.

Is Art (Token Metadata) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

A token with metadata that can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner.

Is Art (This) (2024) Ethereum ERC-721 Token in edition of 16.

This can be nominated as art (or not) by its owner.