What You Need to Know About Generative Artist Monica Rizzolli

When she began her career, Brazilian-born, Portugal-based painter Monica Rizzolli had no idea she would become a renowned NFT generative artist. She only knew she wanted to create art.

More specifically, she knew she wanted to develop the creativity and inspiration that her grandfather's creative work had instilled in her. Although he was a printer rather than a generative artist, she still learned from his work ethic and dedication to his craft.

Rizzolli went on to study fine arts and later programming, always observing the nature around her. She combined these three perspectives and skills to form Monica's unique art style - a picturesque, soothing, and dance-like nature that captivated the NFT world in 2021 with her first Art Blocks series, "Infinite Field Fragments".

Before we delve into how this collection changed lives, here are some facts about Monica Rizzolli, her design style, and her approach to creativity.

Who is Monica Rizzolli?

Monica Rizzolli is a Brazilian artist and researcher currently based in São Paulo, Brazil. For over a decade, she has been a pioneering force in the field of generative art. Her work sits at the fascinating intersection of art, science, and technology. She combines traditional artistic techniques with cutting-edge technologies to create generative artworks that are not only visually stunning but also intellectually stimulating, pushing the boundaries of digital art.

Rizzolli's Interest in Generative Art Predates NFTs

In interviews, Rizzolli often cited her grandfather, her father, and her home country, Brazil, as sources of inspiration for her creations. She also saw many parallels between her grandfather's printing process and the NFT process. In April 2023, she told the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) that generative art is very much like printmaking. It's built upon an inspiration, but multiple iterations and potential versions can be born from it.

Rizzolli draws on these inspirations to create generative art, emphasizing the iterative nature of the process and how it allows for infinite variations from a single source.

She told the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: "...printmaking has always been about the idea of multiplicity, and before NFTs, this tradition continued, of trying to use a matrix to create similar versions, and in generative art, this process is taken a step further, using a single matrix, which is code, to create different multiplicities."

Nature is the Backbone of Rizzolli's Generative Artistic Perspective

Whether you're browsing through Rizzolli's "Fragments of an Infinite Field" on Gate or navigating her "Underwater" series at the NFT ART CDMX Bright Moments exhibition, you'll find odes to waves, flowers, and nature.

Subtle shades of green blend with vibrant oranges and blues to help collectors and viewers feel connected to the world Rizzolli wanted to capture.

As Rizzolli explains, "Two things motivated me to study plants: first, the morphology of plants and the development of shapes and structures, which is the formal and mathematical aspect of plants; second, observing plants can tell us a lot about a place, what people eat, where plants come from, what they symbolize and so on."

Rizzolli uses generative systems to explore the formal and mathematical aspects of plants, enhancing her ability to blend traditional and contemporary techniques in her work.

Creating Generative Art from a Dataset with Monica Rizzolli

Monica Rizzolli's creative process is a seamless fusion of art and technology. She first collects and analyzes large datasets, which form the foundation for her generative artworks. She uses complex algorithms and machine learning models to generate unique and dynamic patterns, shapes, and colors.

This process allows her to explore the complex relationship between human creativity and machine intelligence. By pushing the boundaries of generative art, Rizzolli continues to redefine what's possible in digital art, creating works that are both innovative and evocative.

Rizzolli's First Art Blocks Collection Captures the Attention of the Generative Art Community

After studying at the Kunstakademie Kassel in Germany, Rizzolli decided to learn programming, and just three years later, in 2015, she combined her artistic perspective with her newfound programming background to present her first generative art exhibition at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture.

However, it was Rizzoli's first Art Blocks collection, "Fragments of an Infinite Field," a series of 1,024 works that sold for $5.38 million in less than an hour, that truly made waves.

For Rizzoll, discovering Art Blocks was life-changing because it gave her a space to bring to life the art form she had been honing for years - generative art - but now in the realm of NFTs.

"Now that I can sell actual on-chain code instead of extracted files, it's exciting and Art Blocks feels like something I've waited for my whole life," Rizzolli explained in an interview.

Rizzolli's use of computer graphics in her "Generative Portraits" series demonstrates her technical prowess and connects to the historical significance of computer graphics in generative art.

For Rizzolli, Art is About Elevating the Entire Creative Community

Since the mid-2010s, Rizzolli has been committed to supporting the creative community around her. While living in Brazil, she co-founded the monthly creative coding event "Processing Night" and co-organized the Brazilian Processing Community Day.

These initiatives help others create art using generative tools, which allow creators to use algorithmic processes to create innovative artworks. These events provided opportunities for her and others to learn more about blockchain technology and the development of the NFT world.

After the success of Fragments of an Infinite Field, she told Time magazine: "I wanted to get more involved: with good equipment and a calm environment, and I also wanted to develop in the area of education in Brazil - to give back to the community."

Like seeds in nature, Rizzolli's personal life inspires ideas that eventually materialize in her work. She described this best when talking about her collection, noting that she wants collectors to look more closely at our interconnectedness and "think about and observe the landscape."

For Rizzolli, this landscape tells a story about "...the relationship between all elements," from the "visual chaos" of rain to the winter "veil" of snow, all of which inspired her.

It's no surprise, then, that Rizzolli's work and the artist's life mirror each other, both always returning to seeds and harvests.