The celebrated photographer Justin Aversano has recently unveiled his latest collection, ‘Smoke and Mirrors,’ which comprises 78 new silkscreens showcasing portraits of individuals he has personally interacted with, printed on Egyptian papyrus. The artworks are currently on display at Gabba Gallery in Los Angeles until April 8. Aversano minted all the new pieces in the series as NFTs on OpenSea prior to the exhibition, and they quickly sold out. The Smoke and Mirrors collection has generated a trading volume of 971 ETH, equivalent to around $1,739,000, with the current floor price standing at 1.298 ETH, or $2,325, as of the time of writing.

The project took three years to complete and was intended to represent a full tarot deck, with each sitter chosen to reflect the meaning of a specific card. Aversano photographed a diverse range of characters, including artists, astrologers, shamans, psychics, family members, and even famous individuals like the Winklevoss twins.

Aversano’s use of silkscreening for this project was a deliberate choice to evolve his work through a new medium. He has previously experimented with traditional photographic processes, such as polaroids for “The Birthday Project” in 2012 and cyanotyping for “Twin Flames” in 2017. The latter project was also minted as an NFT collection, making Aversano an early pioneer of photography projects on the blockchain. It has been highly successful, generating over 5,900 ETH, or $10.7 million, in trading volume to date.