Lisbon 25: Ogar
NonFunGerbils In Lisbon 2025 with Ogar
In a deep-dive conversation at the Non Fungible Conference, artist Ogar shared his philosophy on art, technology, and the current state of Web3, emphasizing his personal commitment to building a lasting legacy. Having recently moved to Portugal, Ogar noted that the quiet, welcoming environment has allowed him to embrace a new phase of life centered entirely around his art, proclaiming, like Trevor, that "there is no plan B."
For Ogar, art is both a passion and a necessary therapy, a way to process the tensions of the modern world, the influence of technology, and the frustrations of algorithmic systems. He is actively building his artistic legacy by recontextualizing his past work: the 60+ metaverse buildings he created in platforms like Crypto Voxels are now reusable assets that form the foundation of a new, recognizable universe in his visual art.
Despite the trend toward moving images, Ogar insists on working with still images. He prefers this format because it allows him to narrate a story on different levels of lecture and encourages the viewer to question what they are seeing, a quality he finds essential for creating art that can be printed, displayed, and endure.
He reflected on his early career, where he worked alongside mentor Alotta Money in the fast-paced world of video game content creation. That experience fostered a spirit of creative freedom and rapid production, but Ogar eventually stepped away from managing people to return to producing himself, driven by a desire to avoid simply being a "billboard" for commercial brands.
Ogar remains committed to the blockchain space because he believes the technology is inevitable and necessary to remove intermediaries and return value to the creators. However, he is cautious, fearing that the utopian vision of the crypto anarchist manifesto is not widely understood and could be co-opted, leading to "technological fascism." He laments the lack of critical thinking, pointing out that knowledge has become a rabbit hole most people refuse to enter. He argues that our society is plagued by:
-Idolization: People blindly following influencers without doing their own research.
-Monopolies: Web2 companies extracting all value and intellectual property.
-Information Overload: The inability of people to process information, leading to short memory and the easy manipulation of news.
He advocates for authenticity, transparency, and honesty—principles he argues should govern news and artistic creation alike. For Ogar, the purpose of art is to create debate and bring back rationality to difficult discussions, encouraging people to "remove idols" and think for themselves. His personal goal is to solve these problems on his own level, "cube by cube, building my own blockchain of symbology."
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