Spanish artist Marcos de la Fuente, who has been based in New York for some time, is revolutionizing the city's galleries with his poems and performances transformed into cryptographic art. These pieces will be sold at auction as NFTs, which is "the way you authenticate a digital work. This means that now the digital works can be unique, which is something that until now did not happen," says the artist.

The NFTs' first physical gallery in New York is called La Casa Arthouse In the Clouds, and is where the artist has presented The Empathy Muscle, an artistic project in collaboration with sound engineer Alec Ekvall to build a 3.0 poetry performance with dynamics that mutate with each exhibition.

De la Fuente has also been working with code and artificial intelligence programmer Diego Pérsico and visual artist Vanesa Álvarez, who has designed a special costume for the performance.

The Empathy Muscle premiered on Saturday, May 29, and showed a new facet of the artist, who took poetry further by joining spoken word technology with work that was encrypted. Once converted into cryptographic art, these pieces become a digital asset hosted on a blockchain that can be purchased with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, doge, or tezos. 

La Casa ArtHouse Gallery became a pioneer and"spearhead of digital art movements in the city," in addition to positioning itself as a reference and meeting space for the promoters of this revolutionary way of producing and consuming art because "the world looks at what we do in New York."

Carlos Hache, a Venezuelan animation designer based in New York for years, a pioneer in the NFT format presented at auction, will participate in the exhibition. The artist recognizes the magnitude and importance of this change in the art world.

"I am used to monetize my art, but not to sell it to the general public. I like the idea of participating in this new wave and revolution," said Hache, convinced that this wave will give visibility to "unconventional" artists who have not yet found their space in galleries and museums.