Success — in every sense, including economic on which the financial police turned a spotlight – For Dangiuzstage name of Leopoldo D’Angelo, arrived, as for many trappers, influencers and creators of digital capitalism, suddenly. Four years ago, the 29-year-old visual artist who has established himself in the NFT marketpublish on the web Grand Challenge. It is the portrait of a dystopian cyberpunk metropolis made of skyscrapers. Uploaded on one of the portals for digital works within 24 hours, with notifications and bids like in auctions, it reaches 18 thousand dollars.
It is one of the turning points in the young life of an artist with a mild, shy character, far from the ways of presenting himself of the gurus (or presumed gurus) of cryptocurrencies who present themselves on social media surrounded by women and custom-built cars.
«I traveled to Dubai, to Miami. But I’m fine in Turin. And I don’t have a Lamborghini, I drive around in my Mercedes A-Class. I’ve never been a fool, I know the weight of money. I have never asked my parents for ten euros, whom I have to thank forever. I am the son of an ecological operator. What I built, I did it alone”, said Dangiuz two years ago, sitting on a bench in Piazza Astengo alla Falchera, his neighborhood, where he had returned in a daring way during the pandemic.
«It all started when I left Milan, where I moved to work as a web designer at 19. I remember, I took the last train before the lockdown started. There were already soldiers and checkpoints around. I moved once again to the white tower of my childhood. And, also out of shock, I started posting my works on social media.”
The attention of the world of digital art was triggered, once again, without warning. «DI taught in my free time without a large following on social media, then one day I uploaded one of my works. And the next morning I woke up with 6 thousand followers.” From January to September 2020, go from 10 to 50 thousand followers on Instagram. In between, there are the first important collaborations. Dangiuz, who takes his name from the nickname he invented when he was at school, earned his first money by designing graphics for rappers and DJs.
They are looking for him from Russia, from the USA, from Asia. «I studied advertising graphics at Bodoni, but attended without much passion. I did the first experiments with Paint and the Photoshop cracked on your home computer, following advice from Internet forums. My first job? THE advertising banners for a phone shop of an acquaintance of mine.”
Dangiuz is self-taught. For art as for English. His philosophy? «In life it’s a mix of luck and skill. Luck alone is not enough and those who are only good remain in a shell.”
He was good at breaking it, to emerge from it and become one of the most famous Europeans in the creative panorama of NFT art. A world of pixels, codes and shadows for those economic quotes with exorbitant and difficult to control figures. «On the Internet, it is the market that decides the value of a work. And not a gallery owner who keeps 70 percent of the profit”, explained Dangiuz, who had arrived at bitcoin, the digital currency that regulates this sector, in small steps, hanging out on web platforms. And, when he started receiving the first digital payments, he did not convert them into traditional currency.
