BRUTAL is a pseudonymous digital artist who has released work under several names, including Brutalisti, Bruta and BRUTAL81, since discovering NFTs on hic et nunc, a platform on the Tezos blockchain. His practice moved from physical oil paintings into digital collage, generative adversarial networks and, eventually, generative code released on fxhash.
The name Brutalisti began as a collaboration with his fiancée, credited as @queenhen_, who painted the original oil works while he added digital and Photoshop layers on top. When she began releasing work under her own profile, he continued the practice solo, renaming himself Bruta. In pieces like APE in Town and Dragana, he painted or digitally collaged new elements, such as an ape rendered in Photoshop or a colored overlay, onto her earlier oil paintings and graphite studies. He describes his process simply: “I take an old work of me, I alter it, add stuff, break stuff or just play with code, brushes, GAN's.” A later fxhash collaboration with Michele Petrelli, Bellissimas, layered purely generative visuals on top of altered, prerendered images.
