With CRYPTO IS A SCAM, artist Kevin Abosch paints in nature’s warning colours: yellow and black. Having scraped data from thousands of instances across social platforms, news media outlets and blogs in which the phrase ‘crypto is a scam’ was used, Abosch combined this data with further data derived from blockchain transactions associated with alleged ‘scams’. He then employed a ritualistic technique of passing the data through a battery of machine-learning tools including deep-learning algorithms (artificial intelligence), working in a feedback loop with the computer until an emotional distillation was achieved. The canvas is largely composed of two-layered alphanumerics, an encryption of the artist’s findings. Amidst this indecipherable content sits the phrase ‘CRYPTO IS A SCAM’ which in itself is perhaps too vague to be fully understood, yet feels charged.

Kevin Abosch (born 1969) is a conceptual artist and crypto-art pioneer whose work addresses the nature of identity and value by posing ontological questions and responding to sociologic dilemmas. Abosch’s work has been exhibited throughout the world, often in civic spaces, including The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, The National Museum of China, The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Jeu de Paume, Paris, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Vojvodina, The Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medien), Karlsruhe and Dublin Airport.

Twitter: @kevinabosch
Website: https://www.kevinabosch.com

Work

CRYPTO IS A SCAM, 2022 
Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 240 cm