Robert Alice

Biography

Robert Alice is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice combines conceptual engagement with blockchain technology through a formal focus on code, text, and encryption, producing art, exhibitions, and books that investigate blockchains and their histories. He first gained wide attention with Block 21 (42.36433° N, -71.26189° E), presented at Christie's New York as the auction house's first NFT, and later with SOURCE [On NFTs], the first on-chain generative art collection, offering 400 unique works exploring the history and impact of digital ownership. Alice is also the editor of On NFTs, published by TASCHEN with contributions from figures including Hans Ulrich Obrist, a book examining the history and cultural significance of non-fungible tokens that has since been reissued in an expanded edition. His work often treats blockchain not simply as a technology for authentication but as a historical subject in its own right, connecting contemporary systems of digital ownership to much older histories of authorship, provenance, and value. At Art Basel Hong Kong 2026's Zero 10 sector, presented by Onkaos and Colección SOLO, his work SEAL connected blockchain technology to a 2,000-year history of Chinese collector seals, framing digital ownership as a continuation of much older systems for recording and authenticating value rather than as an entirely novel invention. Alice's work has been sold through major auction houses including Christie's and Sotheby's, and continues to explore digital ownership's deeper cultural and historical context.