VAULTED Art Collector Profile #10 - DagieDee
Vaulted is a series where prominent collectors in the Tezos ecosystem are interviewed and highlighted.
Vaulted #10 with DagieDee
“In contrast, Tezos nurtured a scene where artists (and, to some extent, collectors) actively shape and influence each other in a way that feels truly unique. There’s a distinct language and culture among Tezos artists, and some of the most important movements in recent digital art have emerged from this space.”
Unknown Collector: Can you tell us how your collecting journey began?
DagieDee: I’ve always been into art, but I couldn’t really understand the fuss about the NFT hype in 2020 and 2021, especially not at those prices. There was a lot of noise back then, and it took me some time to discover artists whose work I truly love. The first artists I started collecting were Shl0ms, James Bloom, Kevin Abosch, Mical Noelsen, 0xDeafBeef, and others. Now that the hype has settled, it has become much easier to discover interesting artists.
UC: Can you share a story about acquiring one of your favorite pieces or any interesting moment in your collecting journey?
DD: It’s hard to pick a single moment. I’d rather say that all the art I collect gradually changes me—both as a collector and as a person. Collecting NFTs has shifted the way I see the world and how I relate to both physical and digital things. Each time I collect, I become more convinced of how significant this space will be in the long run.
RJ - The Book I Read
UC: What sets Art on Tezos apart in your eyes compared to other NFT ecosystems?
DD: That’s a really good question.
I believe the Tezos scene was fortunate in that it was never hijacked by careless influencers during the NFT hype, nor did Tezos art reach those absurd speculative prices. This gave the ecosystem the time to cultivate a culture genuinely centered on art.
During and even after the NFT hype, other ecosystems built tools and platforms catering to speculators rather than art lovers. But those ‘collectors’ have since moved on, leaving many of those platforms struggling. In contrast, Tezos nurtured a scene where artists (and, to some extent, collectors) actively shape and influence each other in a way that feels truly unique. There’s a distinct language and culture among Tezos artists, and some of the most important movements in recent digital art have emerged from this space.
It’s incredible how many people have yet to discover it, including me. I was late to the party, and I’m still in the process of discovering amazing artists who were already minting work on Tezos in its early days.
UC: Who are your three favorite artists/artworks on Tezos from your collection, and what makes their work stand out to you?
DD: That’s actually impossible to answer because there are so many great artists out there. But here’s my attempt.
I want to highlight three artists who, in their own way, explore the concept of physicality—or its absence—in digital art. But first, some context on why this feels so relevant. For decades, digital screens have been used for streaming, vlogging, gaming, etc. Yet only recently have artists begun tackling the same fundamental question painters have explored for over a century: how to represent reality in a way that makes sense for the medium. These artists engage with that history while pushing it forward, experimenting with digital texture to reshape form, space, and our relationship to them.
RJ has developed a distinctive style where texture and shape form bodies that feel organic yet inherently digital. He often reinterprets well-known artworks or books, placing these familiar yet alienated figures within them. His work constantly plays with the threshold at which we still relate to a subject—or where we stop caring.
RJ - Within the System of the Skin
Danilo Xhema is an artist who paints and draws daily as if it were a necessity, continuing the tradition of representing our world through art. He feels almost like part of the Sumi-e ink painting monks, who distilled nature’s essence into simple brushstrokes. But for Dan, anything can become a subject—whether it’s a pile of plastic chairs, a piece of meat or a re-interpretation of a masterwork from art history’s canon.
His style is minimalistic, stripped down to its essence, while fully embracing a digital-native approach to painting. Despite the apparent simplicity of his work, each piece is created by hand, often requiring hours or days to complete.
His art serves as a meditation on the role of the artist in the digital age, where AI generates images in seconds and copies are made with a simple Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. To me, he’s such an important artists questioning creation itself and what it means to interpret reality in a digital world.
Yuri has developed a fascinating style that is difficult to describe in words. I’d simply suggest looking at his works, zoom in, give your eyes time to adjust, and you’ll start to discover a new universe, a new way of seeing things that once felt familiar.
I’ve chosen these three artists from a much larger wave of creators who engage with these ideas in one way or another, including: Xu0xo, Skomra, Nuv1914, Canekzapata, Pocobelli, Lewie, Michi Asu, Pipi Universel, Solz, Francoise Gamma, Ex Mortal, Kutukola, Greg Nikshumika, Kazuhiro Aihara, Santiago aka Time, and many more.
UC: Which three emerging artists on Tezos do you think are worth keeping an eye on, and why?
DD: Yuran Yakon. The moment I saw his work, I immediately fell in love with it because it’s so different from everything else out there. His art is both conceptual and playful. The true value of his pixelated, raw images lies beyond their visual appeal—it’s the combination of text and image that sets your mind on a journey, traveling through your own emotions and thoughts, while also reflecting on the distant world around us.
Although his work may appear distant and conceptual at first, the experience it creates is deeply emotional, intellectual, and beautiful. You could compare the mechanism behind many of his pieces to Ed Ruscha’s Mountain Prints, but while Ruscha destroys beauty, Yuran creates it—making us reflect on digital distance, human connection, and our simultaneous disconnection from the world.
Alex May has recently stirred up the Tezos scene with his Blaze series. At first, it takes time to fully grasp his work. The way I see it, it’s akin to looking at a Rothko painting—only with time do the colors start to vibrate, and the work comes to life.
Each piece in Blaze consists of slow-moving colors and shapes. To truly appreciate them, you need to spend time watching—preferably 10 minutes or more—without interruption. This is counterintuitive to how we usually interact with digital screens, as we’re used to quick visual stimuli and distractions. But when you engage with Blaze in the way it demands, the work becomes an unexpectedly weird, beautiful, and introspective experience.
Hasdrubal Waffle. He is not exactly a newcomer to the space, but his style continues to evolve and renew itself in fascinating ways. If RJ is the intellectual interpreter of art in a digital context, then Hasdrubal Waffle is the free spirit—playing with, or even outright dismissing, art and its history like a toy. He’s the Charlie Parker of the digital art scene, constantly innovating, discovering new tools, and creating fresh styles that feel genuinely new.
His works radiate an expressive, almost spontaneous energy, reminiscent of Willem de Kooning’s paintings—yet this stands in contrast to the rigorous technical research that precedes each piece. Every artwork he creates is a joy to experience, and his practice only grows more compelling with time.
