The Cyberpunk Collection by digital artist Retro Manni, is a series of 15 beautifully rendered artworks that depict a very real vision of a dystopian future, with each NFT telling the story of the world we may end up living in. It’s terrifying, intriguing and romantic, but most of all, extremely relevant to our times.

The project began in January 2020, when a former teacher, began seeing how the state of the world was beginning to reveal its darkest side to the masses. The political division being stoked by the media, big Pharma changing our habits, lockdowns and digital passports. All of this was the stuff of dystopian sci-fi and cyberpunk novels, but it was all becoming our reality.
Manni began creating a series of artworks that depicted the potential trajectory of the civilised and natural worlds if things carried on the way they were heading.

After deciding to go full time as a digital artist and painter mid 2021, Manni began formulating his plans to become free from the system, wanting to create an independent life as a creative for him and his family. But shortly after leaving his job, he suffered a shock heart attack that stopped him in his tracks. He underwent emergency surgery and was unfortunately out of action for the rest of the year.

He went into severe depression after being put on permanent doses of heavy medication. He felt lost in his career and his original plans. But one day he got a call from a friend who strongly encouraged him to pick himself up and get into the NFT world. Moved by what felt like a sign from the universe, he spent months researching and preparing. He eventually put together his Cyberpunk Collection, the series of artwork created in early 2020. Now in 2022, the work has even more resonance and connects even deeper to the themes and issues it originally set out to tackle.

‘This collection paints the picture of my old self living in a dying world. My slow recovery transformed into a spiritual awakening. The rest of the world is waking up too. But until it does, this story will remain.’ - Retro Manni

Art is available on Teia and Objkt and are priced from 0.8 xtz to 12xtz.