rutgervandertas

Bio

I am a Dutch artist working at the intersection of traditional and digital art. My practice combines classical techniques such as painting and drawing with digital tools, including artificial intelligence and other digital processes. My work takes a critical view on modern society, with a particular focus on how technology and social media shape our lives and our perception of reality.

Since 2019 I have been active in digital art and NFTs, and I have worked with AI, blockchain and decentralized storage as part of my creative process. I have experimented with programmable art on platforms such as Async Art and contributed to projects in which artworks consist of multiple layers, each created by a different artist. Alongside my digital practice, I remain active in the traditional art scene, with work exhibited in galleries and museums. My work centers around collaboration. I combine my artistic practice, my social coaching and the building of infrastructure to preserve the history of crypto art for the long term.

Selected Projects

  • SET (2025) — SET visualizes the rise of Bitcoin and the declining dominance of the U.S. dollar over a 46-year period. The work tracks Bitcoin's market capitalization relative to USDT, making shifts in global financial power almost tangible. The ultimate tipping point is imagined when 1 BTC = 21,000,000 USD. Gold prices serve as a secondary indicator. The composition consists of 13 layers, each with numerous variations, that change with seasons, time of day and geographic location. Edition
  • Absolution (2023) — Layers are deactivated each time the memecoin $PEPE reaches a set price. The work combines AI-generated images with fragments of photographs and paintings, and critiques the cycle of hype in which people spend money on zero-value things instead of buying art. https://absolution.ar.io/
  • Mariupol (2022) — Creative director of a large collaborative NFT artwork on Async.art with 38 artists, raising funds for children in Ukraine. Layers were sold and the proceeds donated to Voices of Children. Press release
  • The First Supper (2020) — The first collaborative artwork on Async.art. LinkedIn
  • Digital works (2019–present) — Works minted on SuperRare, including Thick Finger. SuperRare
  • Stackerbox (current) — An online tool for building layered HTML compositions and exporting them as artworks, ready to mint on Objkt.com or on your own smart contract via Manifold or Transient Labs. Files are stored on Arweave, with decentralized infrastructure provided by Ar.io. The aim is a collaborative tool for artists to build, share and mint artworks together. https://stackerbox.xyz/

Preservation & Infrastructure

  • Digital Rescue Lab (current) — Member of the Digital Rescue Lab, working on the preservation of crypto art after the closure of platforms such as KnownOrigin, Async.art and MakersPlace. Currently building an IPFS coordinator and working with volunteer peers to pin historic works and create redundancy. Related tools: IPFS cluster (glimmy.xyz) and archive tool (artfilter.io). https://digitalrescuelab.xyz/

Collaborations

  • The Guild (NFT Global Art Collective), 2020–2022 — coordinator and artist on several large collaborations, including CyberWatch, Mariupol and ZeroX.
  • CyberWatch — creative lead and liaison between artists and the platform.

Work Experience & Projects: Advise and Collaborations

Skills & Tools

Generative and layered art · Creative direction and collaboration for digital art production · Oil painting, drawing and digital art · Web development with SvelteKit, Node.js and TypeScript, deployed via GitHub and VPS, with self-hosted infrastructure · Vibe-coding with VS Code · Using OpenRouter for agents and APIs · IPFS, Arweave and decentralized storage · Custom websites with CMS, including ytje.org · GIMP, DaVinci Resolve, Blender

Education

  • Gerrit Rietveld Academie, DOGtime, Amsterdam

Expo's and Talks