NFT Steez hosts Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond chatted with Victor Solomon to discuss his journey in bridging his in-real-life artwork with NFTs and how he cultivates the community and culture that surrounds his art.
Solomon’s work centers around basketball — not just the object, but the sport itself. For Solomon, the inspiration for his work comes from wanting to play hockey in his early childhood. At the time, this was a sport that was not accessible for him, but it led to his eventual discovery of basketball, which he found to be more accommodating.
Solomon said:
“Basketball was such an inspirational platform for me since there’s no barrier to entry.”
According to Solomon, the open nature of basketball is an “incredible parallel for everything that’s happening in Web3,” and throughout the episode, he explained the symbiotic relationship he has experienced in building out VesselVerse, his collection celebrating basketball in the metaverse.
Bridging the gap between real life and digital spaces
When asked about the liberating elements of creating and iterating in Web3, Solomon drew attention to the “invigorating” nature of being able to create things that cannot exist in real life, like a “planet inside a hollow basketball.” He also noted the process of taking the physical elements into digital renderings and composites.
For Solomon, building a collection and a community to rally around it was second nature. His extensive experience in the traditional art world gave him the same insight and structure that he uses in releasing digital collectibles.
Drawing inspiration from other NFT projects like Nouns, Solomon’s VesselVerse digital collection operates similarly to his real-life pieces, except one “vessel,” or basketball, is auctioned off every hour.
Contrary to physical installations or show pieces in a gallery, Solomon noted that creating within Web3 offers participants and collectors a larger say in the direction of the work rather than their participation being a one-off…
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