Black Art Rising X Logik presented by LIFEWTR

In honor of Black History Month, LIFEWTR is celebrating Black Art Rising by commissioning a curated NFT collection created by incredible Black artists. Available exclusively on Nifty Gateway, there are two NFTs editioned at 50 apiece — one created and sold by multidisciplinary artist Julian Gilliam, and the other by surreal artist and graphic designer Shaylin Wallace. Both artists are emerging creators whose talents and innovative work are helping to shape the future of art by breaking the traditional boundaries of technology, collaboration, and creation.

Julian Gilliam was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Chicago in search of greater opportunities for himself and his community. After playing Division I basketball, he graduated from Columbia College with a degree in animation, film and video.

Working in the advertising industry, Julian created an intra-agency platform at Leo Burnett called Naomi to bring a more authentic voice to discussion of “culture” in the advertising space. He was scouted to join Google as a creative director and was an early adopter of NFTs and web3 technology. His tech background and unique voice earned him a robust following on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces; he uses the platforms to onboard members of his community, especially Black and brown creatives who have been excluded from traditional creative power structures.

His “The Plug” NFT sold out all 888 units within the first two hours of its public mint, and solidified his status as a web3 creator. His focus now is on educating others so that the gatekeeping of web2 no longer hinders success in the web3 space. As part of extending education to under-served demographics, he co-founded and supports a non-profit online Japanese language school called Chiba Center for the global Black and brown community of creatives to open access to the world’s third-largest economy.