SERJ TANKIAN BRINGS HIS NEW EXHIBITION, “NOT FOR TOUCHING – THE INTANGIBLE COMPOSITION,” ONLINE
21 IMAGES PRESENTED AS BOTH NFTS AND ARCHIVAL GICLÉE PRINTS AVAILABLE ON DEC. 6 VIA CURIONFT
Serj Tankian, the GRAMMY® Award-winning musician, activist and painter, has brought his latest art exhibition, “Not For Touching – The Intangible Composition,” online with a unique mix of the virtual and terrestrial via a collection of animated NFTs and archival giclée prints.
Presented by CurioNFT, the 21 pieces will be unveiled, and on-sale, on Dec. 6 via an online, interactive gallery (https://curionft.com/serj-tankian-not-for-touching?cache-warm) with various simulated rooms, large scale animated graphics masterfully created by Roger Kupelian (The Lord of The Rings, Hugo), and music scored by Tankian. A range of editions will be available including several one of one NFTs with an accompanying signed giclée print, four series of one of 25 NFTs with signed giclée prints as well as four one of 100 NFT only releases.
“I got into painting to see my music,” explains Tankian, who also discussed the collection in a newly published Rolling Stone piece. “By adding musical compositions to art, we’ve created a more powerful encompassing experience for lovers of art and music. NFTs are a natural progression allowing the art and music to move within the scopes of our retinas and our creative minds. I called it ‘Not For Touching’ (NFT) cause it’s a lot sexier than non-fungible tokens.”
Tankian and CurioNFT will offset any environmental impact from the showing with the use of “lazy minting,” a process that reduces emissions, minting NFTs at times of low Ethereum usage, generating 2% of the emissions of a typical NFT minted on Ethereum. For context, when CurioNFT mints an NFT it generates carbon emissions equivalent to sending approximately 17 emails with attachments. In another step towards carbon neutrality, CurioNFT has pledged to offset emissions by planting over 12,000, and counting, trees. As of September, CurioNFT’s environmental efforts have offset over 300% of the carbon created by NFT sales.
The partnership has also pledged to donate 10% of sales to TUMO. The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies is a free-of-charge educational program that puts teens in charge of their own learning. With locations throughout Armenia, Lebanon, France, Russia, Germany and Albania, the program is made up of self-learning activities, workshops, and project labs that revolve around 14 learning targets, from animation to web development.
About Serj Tankian
A singer, poet, songwriter, visual artist, film producer, activist, and composer; Serj Tankian has always created music as an outlet to express his thoughts and feelings with a level of passion and consciousness that few in today’s world of music can rival. An Armenian born in Lebanon and re-rooted in Los Angeles, Tankian was introduced to the melding of cultures, ideas, and ideals from a very young age. The principles learned from this integration and adaptation have led to his understanding of the oneness of all things and have since maneuvered and transfigured into the music and art that he lives to create. As the lead singer and songwriter for System of a Down, Serj has released five studio albums, winning a GRAMMY Award in 2006 for “B.Y.O.B.” and selling over 40 million albums worldwide. Despite this success, Serj has never grown complacent with his art, always striving to open up new channels of sound and arrangement to articulate his artistic expressions. He has released five albums of solo material, beginning with 2007’s chart-topping hard rock album Elect The Dead. His sophomore solo album Imperfect Harmonies was released in 2010, followed by Harakiri in 2012. 2013 saw two distinct releases from Serj, the first being the critically acclaimed Orca Symphony No. 1, released in June of that year, followed up with the very unique Jazz-Iz Christ one month later. In 2021, Tankian release the critically-acclaimed Elasticity EP.
Over the past few years, his time spent in the recording studio has been focused on creating musical scores and compositions for film and video game projects. Serj recently lent his vocals to a modern-day cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s rock classic “Godzilla” for the blockbuster Michael Dougherty film “Godzilla: King Of The Monsters.” He also recorded a modern version of the Armenian folk song “Sari Siroun Yar” along with the Authentic Light Orchestra for the film “The Promise,” directed by Terry George and starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac. Serj was also brought on by Survival Pictures, the producers of the film, to serve as an Executive Music Consultant.
Most recently, Tankian composed the full musical score for award winning documentary “I Am Not Alone” directed by Garin Hovannisian and the upcoming Live Nation Productions film “Truth To Power,” which chronicles Serj’s own journey through the crossroads of music and activism. In 2017, Serj composed music for Emmy nominated Intent To Destroy, a gripping film directed by award winning documentarian Joe Berlinger. That same year he created an intense score for the epic Russian action film “Furious – The Legend of Kolovrat,” followed by his 2018 musical score for award winning film “Spitak,” directed by Alexander Kott. Additionally, Tankian composed the full musical score for independent films “1915” and “The Last Inhabitant,” an original composition for Ilya Naishuller’s “Hardcore Henry” and video game musical scores for “Midnight Star” and its sequel, “Renegade,” which were created by one of the chief architects of the famed “Halo” game franchise.
Serj’s resume also includes the formation of a record label, Serjical Strike Records (established in 2001), which has released albums from many critically acclaimed artists, including Fair To Midland, Buckethead and Death By Stereo.
Along with fellow musician Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave), Serj co-founded the non-profit organization Axis Of Justice in 2002, which strives to bring together musicians, music fans and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice. He has also dabbled in the world of broadcasting as co-host of the Axis Of Justice Radio Network, which can be heard via Sirius Satellite Radio and KPFK in Los Angeles. With a mission of spreading diversity and understanding through music, poetry and activism, Serj Tankian will continue to surprise and enlighten those who listen to his music and hear his words. The coalescing of his life as a musician and that as an activist was explored in the 2021 documentary, Truth To Power (Oscilloscope Laboratories).
In recent years, Tankian has split his time between holding a mic and a paintbrush, having feverishly created over 60 pieces of art since 2013. His journey into the world of fine art began with his Disarming Time Musical Paintings, which were exhibited at Project Gallery in Los Angeles. Since then, he has had multiple exhibitions at galleries in both the United States and New Zealand. In 2015, his artwork was exhibited at the grand opening of New Museum Los Gatos in Northern California as part of a group exhibit that ran from May through September of that year. Most recently, Serj’s artwork was exhibited at two notable galleries in New Zealand as well as a showing at Tufenkian Fine Arts (Los Angeles) in July 2021: “The Incandescent Pause.”
About CurioNFT
Curio delivers a new universe to serve fans through digital collectibles, driven by state-of-the-art non-fungible token (NFT) technology. Working with the biggest names in the entertainment industry, Curio brings innovative, cutting-edge engagement opportunities to delight fans and provide new ways to enhance their relationship with brands. To learn more, please visit: www.curionft.com.
