Blacksneakers: The Power of Gen-Z

Jazmine Boykins, as known as Blacksneakers, is a 21-year-old illustrator and crypto-artist based in North Carolina, USA. As a black artist, she focuses on narrating Black experience, or, in her own words: “complex narratives of our being’s emotional and mental aspects — Black existentialism if you will”. Her illustrations depict altered reality with vibrant colors and surreal situations. You can find people with purple and green skin melting into the background as they slowly turn into organic forms; people sitting in a room with the floor turning into a swimming pool that looks like the sky. To her, these scenarios are alternations of the many complexities the black community may face.

Boykins was very skeptical when it comes to NFT art at first. To her, the idea to sell her works online without physical ownership is unrealistic, for it had always been a failed practice in the traditional digital art world. But once she learned more about the scarcity and transparency it provides, she realized it is a more freeing platform for her to promote and sell her works, without the involvement of many galleries that are predominantly run by white males.

As a Gen Z artist, Boykins believes they are capable of accepting and embracing the differences between her generation and the others. Whether it is about identity, sexuality, or gender, Gen Z to art is another evolving era, leading to a more free and creative time.