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Collecting Minds is where we turn the spotlight on our members — their journeys, passions, and the ways art shapes their lives.
This time we spoke with Lara & Pepe, members of 100C who live in Lisbon. At 28 and 29, they bring together a mix of art, technology, and community. Pepe is the founder of CyborgDAO and Pepe.WTF, pioneering projects at the intersection of crypto and art, with the latest project Memeables creating collectible meme toys. Lara has been working across the arts and technology, building bridges between creative expression and innovation.
I grew up surrounded by art, but it did not really become part of my life until I started exploring it on my own. Right after college in 2020, with my previous creative production company, we worked on a project developing AI sequences for a commercial. That was the first time I engaged with art so directly, beyond the canvases I had been used to seeing. From there I became curious about the digital side of things which expanded over time, and by 2022 I was traveling to fairs big and small around the world, looking to discover more. That is actually how we first connected as well, at the Botto exhibition in Los Angeles in 2022, talking about AI art.
What keeps me motivated today is the sense of discovery and the conversations art creates. Each piece is more than an object, it reflects what is happening in culture, in technology, and also within myself. Collecting allows me to stay curious and continuously expand the way I understand the world. When it comes to instincts or shared vision I believe it is both. I follow what resonates personally, but it becomes more meaningful when those choices open a dialogue within each others motivations. That exchange of perspectives and contrasting tastes adds depth, and makes the whole process more rewarding as it evolves over time and moves in different directions, each representing different phases of our lives.
Definitely intuitive, following our personal interests or drops that happen over time where we really like a collection, or what the artist is trying to explore.
Started through the interest in pepe memes, and the first few artworks were Rare Pepes that had been minted on BTC a few years prior. They follow the collectible card format, so it’s a super easy to get started from the more popular editions, and grow from there. Then as you fall down the rabbit hole and continue pursuing what you find interesting or innovative, the digital collection ends up growing a lot. Collector profiles being public also helps a lot with discovery, it’s easy to see what people are collecting and if you like a style or artist.
Collecting in one click is pretty amazing, compared to the experience of buying and receiving a physical work, especially internationally. Of course if you want to hang something nice up at home, you are going to have to go through that painful process, it is what it is. But it’s nonetheless a super annoying inconvenience in comparison, so that’s something I’d highlight.
It’s mostly digital, so it’s in our online gallery, with a few physicals at home. Something interesting is that we’ve made a few physicals from works that were originally digital. For example, we commissioned a painter to paint in oil a work that had been previously created by Botto, an AI largely influenced and guided by Mario Klingemann, the German AI artist. It changes your connection with the work once you see it in a space you love.
We love mixing the digital native artworks in physical spaces with objects; when we hung the Sheldrick Class with its Korean traditional framing, we combined it with Yasuhito Kawasaki’s Apple and the Boy ceramic sculpture, creating a dialogue between the printed digital work and the handcrafted object, where contemporary imagery meets material tradition.
Discover their art collection here >
Follow their journey on X >
