Andrea Bonaceto
Andrea Bonaceto | |
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| Born | May 13, 1989 Pisa, Italy |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Digital art, interactive art, co-founding Eterna Capital |
| Website | andreabonaceto |
Andrea Bonaceto (born 13 May 1989) is an Italian digital artist and entrepreneur whose work combines artificial intelligence with interactive and participatory elements.[1] He is a co-founder of Eterna Capital, a London-based venture capital fund focused on blockchain technology.[2][3] His works have been sold at auction by Christie's and Phillips, and exhibited in venues including the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and public spaces in London and Hong Kong.[4][5]
Career
Bonaceto was born in Pisa, Italy, in 1989.[1]
In 2018 Bonaceto co-founded Eterna Capital, a London-based venture capital fund investing in blockchain projects.[2][6] In 2019 he was included in the finance category of Forbes Italia's 30 Under 30 list.[3] In 2023 he was named in the culture category of Fortune Italia's 40 Under 40 list.[7] His involvement in the blockchain sector preceded his artistic activity with non-fungible tokens.[8]
In 2021 he collaborated with Hanson Robotics on a project involving the humanoid robot Sophia. Bonaceto created digital portraits of Sophia and her creators, which were then processed by the robot's neural networks; the resulting video works documented the transformation of each image from human representation to machine interpretation.[9] One of the works, Sophia Instantiation, sold at auction on Nifty Gateway in March 2021 for $688,888, attracting international press coverage as one of the first artworks co-created and sold by a robot.[9][10]
Later that year, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera commissioned Bonaceto to reinterpret its 1969 front page announcing the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The resulting programmable artwork, The Moon Landing, is designed to change to a final state when humans next land on the Moon, and was sold in ten editions on Nifty Gateway in September 2021.[11]
AB Infinite 1 (2022) is an interactive digital work to which viewers could contribute by posting images and text on Instagram and Twitter under the hashtag #abinfinite1; submissions were processed by an AI system and incorporated into the work's imagery and an evolving poem.[12][13] The work was shown at W1 Curates in London and at the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan, and was included in Christie's "20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale" in October 2022, where it sold for £151,200.[4]
In June 2023 Phillips held a standalone online auction for Tempus Fugit, a digital work based on a clock belonging to the artist's grandmother, which sold for £127,000.[5] In 2024, People, the first work from Fragments (2020), a series of twelve physical paintings, was sold at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Online auction, marking Bonaceto's debut on the physical art market.[14]
In 2025 and 2026 Bonaceto presented Untitled, a participatory project on artificial intelligence and self-awareness, at several venues in Hong Kong, including The Box at the DX Design Hub during Business of Design Week and, from January 2026, public activations at Tsim Sha Tsui Centre, Empire Centre and AIRSIDE.[15][16]
Exhibitions
Bonaceto's work has been included in group and solo exhibitions including Crypto Art: A New Possibility at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing;[17] the Decentral Art Pavilion at Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Venice;[1] DART 2121 at the Museo della Permanente, Milan;[18] At First Glance at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris;[19] and Fragments at Valuart Gallery, Lugano.[20]
References
- 1 2 3 "Meet the Media Guru | Andrea Bonaceto". MEET. 2023-01-26. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- 1 2 Partz, Helen (2018-05-03). "BlackRock Investment Firm Analysts Quit To Establish $20 mln Blockchain Venture Fund". Cointelegraph. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- 1 2 "Forbes 100 30 Under 30 Italia 2019". Forbes Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- 1 2 "ANDREA BONACETO (B. 1989)".
- 1 2 "Andrea Bonaceto - Andrea Bonaceto: Tempus Fugit: Online Auction London Thursday, June 1, 2023". Phillips. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ Clarke, Paul (2018-05-02). "BlackRock analysts quit to launch blockchain venture fund". Financial News. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- ↑ "40Under40 Cultura". Fortune Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-08-05.
- ↑ "Andrea Bonaceto and the role of NFTs as a paradigm shift way beyond art". My Art Guides. Retrieved 2026-07-31.
- 1 2 Ives, Mike (2021-03-25). "The Latest Artist Selling NFTs? It's a Robot". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ "NFT 'self-portrait' by Sophia the Robot sells for nearly $700,000". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ Marsano, Beba (2021-09-22). "Una prima pagina storica del "Corriere della Sera" diventa arte digitale con gli NFT: oggi l'asta (solo per un'ora)". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ Tolentino, Jamie (2022-05-17). "AB Infinite 1 by Andrea Bonaceto". London Unattached. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ "AB INFINITE 1 | Andrea Bonaceto at MEET". MEET. 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ "Andrea Bonaceto (B. 1989)". Christie's. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
- ↑ "Andrea Bonaceto, artista: Untitled, l'IA aiuta a capire chi siamo". Fondazione Leonardo (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-02-02.
- ↑ "Andrea Bonaceto: Untitled". BODW In The City. Retrieved 2026-02-02.
- ↑ "What else can we talk about on crypto art besides money? - Reviews - Art News - CAFA ART INFO". www.cafa.com.cn. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ Permanente, La (2022-03-29). "DART 2121 2ND EDITION. NFT ART OF THE FUTURE". Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ↑ "ANDREA BRANZI, PLEASED TO MEET YOU – 50 ANS DE CRÉATION – Friedman Benda". Retrieved 2024-04-02.
- ↑ "FRAGMENTS by Andrea Bonaceto". PRNTD Studio. Retrieved 2025-07-31.