Eric P. Rhodes

Artist. Researcher. Technologist.


Artist Statement

I'm a visual artist working with emotion, memory, and ephemera.

I use blockchain to explore what it means to store emotion onchain. I turn feelings into color, structure, and metadata, asking how these records might live on immutably and be used in the future by others.

I'm particularly drawn to the interplay between systems and affect (the experience and expression of emotions and feelings), especially cultural residue left behind by technology and lived experience.

Primitives is the system I built for this. It's modular and composable (meaning others can build on top of it), letting me document emotional moments in an artwork. Each piece becomes a signal in the network.

Before this, I helped lead digitally native art movements such as Alt-Punks and Trash Art. I often used Web3 to experiment with what creative freedom can look like in practice, not just in theory. I see art as a living system, shaped by every collector, remix, and conversation.

In my new work, my aim is for collectors and viewers to connect with the emotional resonance held in each piece.