André 🎸🤘

BEING TENDER Part I Hi. I’m Adam, and I’ve been running TENDER since starting it in January of 2022. It’s occurred to me that many people in the broader space don’t know TENDER, what I do here, how we work, what we’ve done, or why TENDER exists. Very understandable – as a one person team, there is a lot that inadvertently remains unsaid, and I end up prioritizing my work directly with artists over communicating as much on social media as I would like. Now I finally want to share in writing the things I get to say in conversation about TENDER – with this being the first of 5-10 long posts giving some definition to this whole endeavor. Firstly, what the hell does the idea of “tender” have to do with art anyhow? What a strange name for a gallery! It is, and that little spark of strange is akin to the fun of introducing new, unexpected things to people - in our case art. This act of sharing, advocating for, and stewarding new generative art is what we’re about. A Tender is actually the name of a ship or vessel that shepherds other ships into port and onto bigger waters – they play an essential but supporting role. Tender is also a word for currency, an artifact created to hold value far greater than its mere material worth (hence the currency-inspired style of our TENDER Pass). While our focus is not on the monetary aspects of art collecting, we certainly believe in the immense value of art in our lives and are here to grow an appreciation of generative art until it holds significant culturally ubiquitous value. So there’s a lot of meaning behind the name of this gallery, in addition to it simply sharing the feel of loving care I try to put into everything we do. The heart on our handle and in my gm’s isn’t some trite hug – it’s a symbol of our purpose and what we believe is the value of art itself… but more on that in the following posts of BEING TENDER ❤️ But actually - is TENDER a gallery at all?! It’s the best single-word description we have, but my preference is to think of it as the ‘gallery of the future’ instead – an atypical approach that is still taking shape, but seeks to combine the best of practices from the existing fine art gallery world, the design world, the web3 art ecosystem, and the occasional rethinking of things all together. There is a lot that we’ve done that I’m proud of, done in ways that I believe in – and many aspects of our practice that I’m excited to evolve, add, and deepen. Will be outlining thoughts on this as well. As TENDER grows, the plan is to build a team of people as passionate about this art movement as I am… so talking about TENDER as ‘us’ and ‘we’ is partially a practice of preparation and manifestation. I am also highly collaborative and a bit self-effacing, so it’s my habit to talk about the teams, brands, and companies I’ve led over the years as a whole rather than taking individual credit. TENDER is no different, even when I am the one leading all collaborations, releases, our website, and more. This mentality is part of why the gallery doesn’t share my name. But yes, it’s just me. My personal twitter account got hacked two months ago and now is doing some dumb stuff, so I’ll be a bit more more direct and personal on this account, representing the strong opinions and convictions that drive everything TENDER is. But I am not alone here. TENDER has had the incredible support of so many people in this ecosystem that I’m incredibly grateful for. From one of my oldest and best friends and collaborators @djdisdo helping launch and grow TENDER, to the tight group of about 25 ‘founding TENDERs’ who wrote the first editorials, shaped our practices, and helped onboard the wider community of TENDERs through our Pass. They also helped advocate for the amazing cohort of 60-some collaborating artists I’ve worked with so far… all of whom took a leap to work with someone with a small following and a mere promise of artistic rigor – starting in a time when nobody was doing collaborations and online gallery releases. All of these participants are a foundation to the countless other collectors, artists, founders, and advocates for everything we’ve done. Thank you! I hope together we can grow this support much further – not for myself or TENDER, but for the benefit of the artists we work with and the new collectors we can expose to their work. Our belief, my belief : ) is that propelling the efforts and creations of these artists can lead to a broader recognition of the importance of this generative art movement. If art is a reflection of the times its created within, then what more relevant and important movement could there be than one using the explosion of technologies – those continuing to reshape global society and culture – to create artistic systems that help birth artworks that represent the enduring chance and serendipity of life?! With Love, Adam shown: Pang #471 by TENDER x @abstractment (April 2022, the first ever TENDER Collaboration)