The Fine Art Ledger® Powers Julian Lennon’s ‘Wake Up & Dream’ Photography Exhibition in San Francisco
Photography has long been celebrated as a medium through which artists capture the essence of life, emotions frozen in time, and stories waiting to be told.
When this traditional art form intertwines with modern technology and innovation, it creates a mesmerizing blend of the old and the new, offering a unique art experience that transcends boundaries.
One such awe-inspiring fusion is on display at photographer Julian Lennon’s exhibition, ‘Wake Up & Dream’, running until June 30th, 2024 at the St. Joseph’s Arts Society in San Francisco.
Wake Up & Dream
For Julian , his photography is a reflection of his experience as a creative. While known principally as a musician, Julian sees himself as a “…human, being creative in all forms…” rather than a musician who takes photographs.
“…the work speaks to you, it tells you what it wants to be…”
For Julian it is also about telling a story. And it is his own life experiences which reflect in his portraiture. His capture of other musicians provides a stillness and sense of depth in color and insight to its subjects, from U2’s Bono, to Joe Bonamassa, Paul Buchanan to Billy Gibbons. A kind of freeze-frame intimacy that Julian’s lens vividly extends to his viewers.
But it is not just his entre to music elite that proves Julian’s stature as a visual artist. He uses his eye to relate how other people live. His work , “Hope” from the ‘Horizon’ series, though in black and white, provides a look into the soul through the eyes of a subject as startling and as cutting as Steve McCurry’s “Afghan Girl”.
Works from his ‘Atmospheria” Series, many of them taken, without blemish or reflection, through airplane windows, turn skyscapes into large-scale canvasses.
All of these works adorn the walls of designer Ken Fulk’s reimagined St Joseph’s Church on Howard Street, replete with standard bearer bears overseeing the main hall and almost frescoed roman statue motif type-mural over its sanctuary.
Julian’s photography elicits the sensation of awakened dreaming, not only as moments frozen in time of a life brimming with creativity and creative access, but the whole experience nestled in St Joseph’s thrusts one into a waking dream of rejuvenation and creative possibility.
An insight to Julian and his body of work: included in each FAL Mobile Fine Art Experience for the Exhibition.
FAL’s Mobile Fine Art Experiences™
FAL uses NFTs to authenticate underlying art assets, whether physical or digital. It connects the NFT to the underlying artwork and allows art viewers to authenticate and be told the art and artist’s story, while standing in front of the art, using their mobile phones.
For Julian’s exhibition, FAL minted each of Julian’s exhibited artworks and connected each work of physical art to the work’s NFT. Anyone at the exhibition could then capture the work with their mobile phone in real time to get the work’s NFT generated certificate of authenticity, verifying the work as an original Julian Lennon and confirming the provenance and ownership of the work.
FAL’s Mobile Fine Art Experience for “Sultan Sun”, 2023, 2/3, ‘Atmospheria’ Series: Grab the QR Code with your Phone or click the link to View the Mobile Fine Art Experience:
https://bb.io/gs1dl/13/8013/6fd09fab-eaf6-4285-bccd-bd737cc4b0ba
Each certificate of authenticity is pulled directly from the NFT into FAL’s Mobile Fine Art Experience. The Experience also included a video about Julian and his work, and a buy-now button to buy the work directly then and there.
FAL uses a combination of Near Field Communication (NFC) tags, image recognition and QR Codes as part of its Art Recognition™ system to access its Mobile Fine Art Experiences.
At the Exhibition’s opening in April, it was fascinating to see people interacting with Julian’s works and to see how FAL worked to enhance and facilitate art sales at the exhibition.
Authentication is Everything
For art collectors, knowing that they are buying into the limited edition, authentic artifact of an artist’s body of work is essential.
Online art sales, for example, have increased substantially over the last number of years, now accounting for a sizable portion of global fine art sales. Fakes, forgeries and unauthorized prints and copies of works continue to proliferate, though, especially as images shared online are easily appropriated.
The beauty of FAL is that it authenticates, and provides a record of the work before it is sold so that you can buy with confidence. This proof and record is not centrally controlled, but rather immutably preserved or controlled by the NFT tied to the work
Often, buyers rely on an existing or dated paper certificate to verify the work’s authenticity, usually provided by gallery, dealer or other seller. This becomes more complex when buying in the secondary art market where there is no direct access to the artist or primary dealer. Reliance on dated dealer or seller say-so or paperwork may leave a measure of doubt.
FAL preserves proof of authenticity on the blockchain using NFTs, and immutably records ownership and provenance. At the same time, it catalogs the work and allows its users to upload documents and other content, for example the work’s invoices, bills of sale, and auction records, creating an active record and inventory of the works history, ownership and provenance, neatly available to a prospective purchaser and quickly verified on her phone.
And importantly, all of this information, controlled by the NFT, transfers to the buyer of the work on sale when the NFT is transferred, creating a chain of authenticity, ownership and provenance trackable to the origination of the work and its earlier sales.
Each purchased work is then cataloged in the buyers own FAL account, automatically inventorying the work, and creating an organized, and easily accessible ongoing record of the work, its ownership and provenance.
Unlocking the True Potential of NFTs
Julian’s exhibition goes beyond the confines of a physical exhibition, and what its visitors encounter is an expansion of traditional art engagement, appreciation and value.
It is not the old concept of NFTs simply as digital art, but rather used as a novel means of understanding the story of the art and Julian’s inspirations for the works. It underlines the importance of this body of work as unique expressions of Julian’s creativity. Each work is unique and NFTs are used to immutably preserve and enshrine this exclusivity.
A Call to Experience
For art enthusiasts and novices alike, ‘Wake Up & Dream’ is a must see. Immerse yourself in a world of waking dreams, and where fine art meets technology, authenticity blends with innovation, and creativity knows no bounds. Visit the St. Joseph’s Arts Society in San Francisco before June 30th, 2024, and witness the magic firsthand.
Experience ‘Wake Up & Dream’ now
Julian Lennon photography art exhibition San Francisco.
