VESA stands as a vanguard in the realm of digital creativity, merging cutting-edge technology with mythic narratives from ancient civilizations and their structures, like the pyramids, to redefine the essence of art. His creations are more than visual feats; they are portals to immersive realms where artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality meet timeless myths like Jungian archetypes, executed with profound narrative depth.
VESA captivates and reaches audiences of hundreds of millions of people. He is known as the Founder of VESA Digital, a company that explodes art out of the frame and onto luxury vehicles and objects, like in his project with Dubai Blockchain Centre CEO Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni and VESA Art Cars.
His heavily researched and story filled method lends itself to working with celebrities, like actress Veena Malik and Data Activist Brittany Kaiser. He has been awarded multiple times, most recently as NFT Artist of the year (AIBC, 2023) and Top Web3 Artist (L’Officiel Arabia, 2022). His art has been collected by hedge funds, exchanges, CEOs, and influencers. Among them are Charles Hoskinson, Charlie Lee, Dr Marwan Al Zarouni, H.E Amna Fikri, Mondoir, Colborn, and many others. VESA’s latest shows have recently included Art Dubai, Museum of the Future, FT NFT Gallery, Edge of Riyadh, WOW Summit and Swiss Web3 Fest.
Please tell us more about you and your art journey.
I started my creative journey at five years old by turning my parents’ pots and pans into a drum kit and by taking pictures of stray dogs during our travels with my Fisher-Price camera. I came to adulthood testing out digital video cameras, as non-linear editing was just starting to be a thing. My education is in film, and I ran a production company for a decade, but got this idea about bodypainting mixed with layer painting and photography in 2008 that changed my life. This led me to have digital originals already back then, and an ability to collaborate with a new form of portrait painting I called Artevo, in which the subject truly becomes art. Veena Malik was the first superstar I worked with. It was a grand experiment in storytelling and pushing boundaries on what was possible with art on many levels. Eventually, in 2017, having needed blockchain technology for my whole creative life, I discovered the potential of it quite early. I’ve had a head start thinking about the implementations of digital originals both in the physical and digital realms, so our company VESA Digital, is now immersed in that.
What kind of shift do you see in your career in working in the UAE? 
Due to the kind introduction of Anita Kalergis to Dr Marwan Al Zarouni in 2020, who is the CEO of the Dubai Blockchain Center, we started working on this Web3 art car project. Due to his influence, he was able to make a new official RTA category for cars called ‘art car’. This way we can wrap cars in full blown artworks and paint on them and drive them on the streets. As the UAE is a big car culture, this is a unique opportunity which is just starting to come to fruition. The country has offered me many avenues to exhibit, speak and become a part of the creative evolution, for which I am deeply grateful for. UAE is also a gateway to potentially working in many of the surrounding countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.
What does your artistic career represent to you?
It’s the difference between living a purpose-filled life or fulfilling someone else’s expectations about it. My wife jokingly reminds me that for a long time, I did not even refer to what I do as work. Still, being an artist is something I am, not something that I do, although now my brand functions like a business and involves a lot more people than just myself. Art represents my values of freedom, spiritual growth, contributing to society in a meaningful way and bringing more beauty into an increasingly nihilistic world. Even if people often say art is only subjective, we all intuitively know when we are impacted by the real thing. Art has an important function for the human psyche.
Can you tell us about your past and upcoming collaborations and projects?
Put very simply, all the multitudes of projects we create under the VESA Digital banner are split into two main projects: Becoming Art and Renaissance 360.
Becoming Art is my holistic process of creating art with someone, like in the past I worked with Bollywood actress Veena Malik and currently I am post-producing my collaboration with data activist Brittany Kaiser. Renaissance 360 involves leveraging the IP of my artworks and implementing them on various surfaces, like on cars, villas, yachts, and planes.
As a company, we are working hard to forward these projects and I always find time to attend events all around the world, like Outer Edge in Riyadh that I just returned from, or Web3 Fest in Switzerland, which I will fly to in a month. Next up after that is Cairo, to start something exciting with Mercatura Forum. I’m a huge geek about the pyramids, so doing a project close to them is a dream come true.
Would you like to tell our audience anything else about your future endeavours?
Another side of our ventures is a scalable charity project utilizing web3 tools, as the unbanked of the world might just have a way to enter the global economic world, via creative solutions. This potential was at the heart of venturing web3 in the early stages. We’ve already chatted about this to Unicef and looking forward to more conversations like it.
”Vesa’s art is amongst the most integrally advanced in the history of Western abstraction – no small claim, but one backed up by the works themselves. Rather than abstraction as a fleeing from life, his works are a diving into the incarnate mystery of human being — direct celebrations of the fullness of Life.”
– Michael Schwartz, Professor of History and Philosophy of Art, Augusta State University, March 2014
Verify quote: https://integrallife.com/artevo-2/
@artbyvesa ( X & Insta)
