Multidisciplinary Blockchain Artist & Crypto Art Historian
Martin Lukas Ostachowski (MLO)
German-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and writer based in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, QC. He explores clouds as a symbol, subject, and medium to educate about the transformative potential of blockchain technology through both physical and digital art.
His art has been exhibited internationally across North America, Europe, and Asia. As a PhD researcher at the University of Zurich, he is one of the leading historians documenting the evolution of crypto art.
PhD Researcher, Art History — University of Zurich
Artist Statement
Network of Hope
Geometric abstraction, minimalism, and technology are central to my work. In my paper paintings, I use both traditional and modern arts-and-crafts methods, such as weaving, hand-cutting, and laser-cutting, along with digital fabrication in various ways.
Clouds are both my main subject and my medium. Their constant change, visual appeal, and rich symbolism across cultures have kept me interested in them. I see blockchain as a technology that changes how we think about, work with and store data. By using clouds in my work, I explore blockchain’s structure and see clouds as a modern symbol for data storage, connection, transformation, and the hope for a fairer sharing of opportunities and wealth.
In my work, clouds and technology are closely linked. Sometimes they are the subject, sometimes the medium, and the digital clouds of computing come together with the painted, sculpted, and coded clouds I make in the studio. Using both, I think about how new systems of exchange, trust, and value affect our lives and what they ask of us in return.
My practice is grounded in research. As a PhD researcher in Art History at the University of Zurich focusing on the history of crypto art, I draw on scholarship to inform the studio practice, and the resulting series and individual works often carry an educational character, designed to make the mechanisms and stakes of blockchain accessible to audiences beyond the field.
Artist Biography
MLO Biography
Short Bio — for press use
Martin Lukas Ostachowski is a German-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and writer based in Montreal. His body of work, Network of Hope, uses clouds as a symbol, subject, and medium to explore the transformative potential of blockchain technology. His art has been exhibited across North America, Europe, and Asia. He is a PhD researcher in Art History at the University of Zurich, specializing in the history of crypto art.
Movement defines Martin Lukas Ostachowski’s life and art. Having lived in three countries and relocated over 35 times, he feels more at home in the sky than in any single place, a connection reinforced by over 900 passenger flights across the past decade and a recurring engagement with clouds and the sky as central subjects of his work.
After discovering Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology in 2017, MLO’s practice pivoted to explore blockchain architecture as a foundational shift in how we think about, work with, and store data, with particular attention to the implications for digital art distribution. Through the subject of clouds, he examines the blockchain as a contemporary symbol of data storage and connectivity.
For Ostachowski, clouds and blockchain share fundamental qualities. Both are intangible, move permissionlessly across borders, and exist as fragile constructs. Just as clouds depend on atmospheric conditions to hold their form, blockchain depends on a network of active nodes to hold its consensus.
Network of Hope, his ongoing body of work, uses cloud-inspired imagery to explore blockchain’s transformative potential. Across data visualizations, animations, and digital and physical media, he demystifies the technology and opens conversations about its role in shaping how value, ownership, and authorship will be defined.
Curriculum Vitae
Selected CV
Selected Exhibitions
Speaking & Panels
Publications
Awards & Grants
Education
Institutional and Private Collections
Press & Media
Press Kit
Download the press kit for high-resolution images, artist biography, artist statement, and selected artwork images with captions.