The metaverse is taking shape before our eyes, and artists like Fvckrender, aka Frederic Duquette, are making it happen. A 3D artist by trade, Fvckrender creates deeply moving works — some of which have sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s for thousands.
The Vancouver-based artist has worked with Lil Nas X, Lebron James, Puma, Spotify, Instagram, Supreme, Christian Dior, Hypebeast, and many other big names. After selling NFTs on marketplaces like SuperRare and NiftyGateway, he wanted more. So he’s entering the metaverse — or rather, building his own called LVCIDIA.
LVCIDIA is an immersive virtual gallery filled with sculptures that represent the fragility of our existence, as well as the beauty of our humanity. Most recently, Fvckrender launched the much-anticipated Fvck_Avatar NFT collection of 12,969 unique avatars. These PFP avatars will act as “beacons” or landmarks in LVCIDIA.
We were able to catch up with Fvckrender to learn more about the world he’s created, as well as his new PFP project.
Tell us a little bit about your background.
I am a digital artist from Montreal, currently based in Vancouver. I dropped out of school very early and started teaching myself how to make art and use 3D software by watching countless hours of YouTube tutorials.
How did you get into web3 and crypto art?
I started seeing a lot of my friends sell their own work and get paid with ETH which made me very excited. My goal has always been to be able to live off of my art and not have to do commercial work or execute someone else’s vision. I wanted to create my own world, and web3 has allowed me to do that.
You’re widely regarded as one of the OGs in the space. How have you seen it evolve in the time you’ve been active? What does ‘being OG’ mean to you?”
That is actually so dope to hear! It is hard to look at it like that since we were all so deep in it at the time we don’t really realize what is happening around us. I guess being OG just means being early.
What is LVCIDIA?
LVCIDIA is a virtual art experience with a high level of game design and tokenomics – it’s an exploratory artwork.
Tell us a little bit about the inspiration for the Fvck_Avatar collection.
Since the trend was people using PFP projects as their profile pictures on Instagram and Twitter, I decided to challenge myself to make a collection people could use for that based on my style with some of the iconic elements I use in my art.
In order to mint you had to burn essence, can you tell us a little more about that and why you opted for those mechanics?
To be honest, I don’t really have a good reason. I just thought making people play the game a bit more was interesting, I always want to make my community participate as much as I can.
Can you give us some LVCIDIA alpha?
The next updates are going to be fuckin’ insane…that’s all I can say 🙂
We talk a lot about transparency in the web3 space, how do you feel about projects with undoxxed founders?
Great question. I personally prefer doxxed, but it seems like undoxxed teams perform better, but I don’t know. I personally don’t care, as long as the team and the project are sick.
What do you hope people will take away from your work?
I want people to feel proud owning it. I want people to treat my pieces as luxury NFT items, not streetwear shit, not a baseball card, more like the Cartier of web3.
What do you think still needs to change about web3?
There’s a huge education side that needs to be more present so that people don’t get taken advantage of.