This summer, The Rio Art Residency kicked off its second cohort, taking a global group of artists to connect, create, and convene in the storied Brazilian city of Rio De Janeiro. In a world where we increasingly connect online, initiatives like this are more important that ever, and remind us that creativity requires collision, and what a joy it was to collide with such a vibrant group of fellow artists.

This photo essay is a behind the scenes look at our time together. You can click here to see the minted collection on SuperRare. Thank you to Selkie and @Efdot for putting this together for us- and to all of the artists as well for their warmth and comradery:

@oabeguar, @ALIENQUEENNFT, @0xBEISSU, @bryanbrinkman, @EfdotStudio, @0xVestica, @egodead, @P1AbyPIA, @POSTWOOK, @fotogracria, @nolankosher, and @tormius

From the Rio Art Residency Website:

"In July, 13 artists spent a week in Rio de Janeiro creating together, within the theme “When pixels learned to samba”, learning from each other and their surroundings and experiencing what, for many, was a new environment ripe for inspiration.

The programme will end in September, when artists will take part in a group show at SuperRare’s Offline gallery, in NYC, and their works were made available for collection.

In the past 100 years, Brazil experienced several currents of creative expression - the birth of Brazilian Modernism in 1922 which inspired the fine arts, poetry, music, cinema, architecture and symbolised a break with the past; the rise of samba and carnival from its origins to the mainstream in the 1920s and beyond; the dawn of Cinema Novo, Tropicalia and the Neo-concrete Movement; the resistance to the Military regime from 1964-1985; the awakening of the favelas through Rio Funk music in the 1990s, and more.

Always fertile ground for expression, Rio itself was the origin place of many of these movements or offered the perfect conditions for them to thrive. Cariocas (people born in Rio) are known for their hunger for beauty though not in the traditional sense of the word. Beauty that explodes into existence amidst struggle, pain, chaos, injustice and violence. They embrace the future while constantly looking to the past - firmly rooted while freely evolving.

Digital art, where the possibilities for creating, exploring and innovating are endless, is the natural step forward for artists everywhere to flourish. It’s also a vehicle for Rio artists to connect and exchange their ideas, power and vibrancy with digital artists from elsewhere in the world. This exchange is what the Rio Art Residency is all about."