Two years in the making, a brilliant crypto collaboration comes full circle. Mattia Cuttini, a nebula that birthed many a star in the metaverse, and Skygolpe, master of one of the most recognisable motifs in crypto art. On the 27th of April, 2020, when a pandemic shut down the meatspace, these two artists began a fevered, creative dialogue between the abstract and the human in all of us. And Verba Manent is an incredible inflection point in that conversation.

The contradictions are delicious and deep. Mattia is not pseudonymous or anonymous, but his work is a headlong plunge into abstractions with tangible, even physical results. And Skygolpe - the name itself a ‘semantic shock’ as he would put it - invites you in with a human silhouette and drops you into inexpressible, evocative places.

Verba Manent translates to ‘The spoken word endures’. What this piece means, however, is that the conversation endures. To the rest of us, it enriches us with questions of identity, emotion, abstraction and the heart of what art means. You can approach it from Mattia’s perspective, grounding yourself in the reassuringly real textures and patterns, until you stumble into an esoteric portal and lose yourself in a dash of colour. Or you can gaze into the elusive face of Skygolpe’s everyman, try to glean the intent of his expression and find that yourself staring back from the depths.

Two years in the making. A conversation that will last you a lifetime.

Text by Anand "Twobadour" Venkateswaran.

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