A marriage of the kitsch, the political and the new age, NFT artist Lofty Leaderz work is a gallery of the most significant leaders in history - some fictional, some chronicled - a homage to the figures that have shaped the world we live in, whether that's for better or for worse.

There was a theory in the 19th century popularised by Thomas Carlyle that said that history, at its core, it's a story of the impact of great men or heroes, who are the: “modellers, (...) creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do, (...) the soul of the whole world's history, it may justly be considered, were the history of these.”

Thankfully things have evolved enough by now for women to also be given the space to be influential and generative, and it's its like Lofty Leaderz who pay tribute to these individuals who, essentially, represent for many a moment in time, a sentiment, some sense of value for truth that moved them enough to want to make it into a collective reality.

Lofty Leaderz is one of many artists that use Open Sea, an NFT selling platform, to distribute and commercialise their work. The word NFT (non futile token) is in heavy circulation as of current conversations online, especially in a world where digital existence becomes more and more prevalent everyday, and those people who produce the culture that is so significant popular sphere struggle to say their work paid off in any tangible way, where is where NFT's come about.

A “non fungible token” is a piece of digital art that, despite being shared infinitely, has a special blockchain technology (similar to a certificate of authenticity) that allow the potential buyer to have full ownership of the piece, building the bridge between the treasuring of a fan of someone’s artwork and a sustainable living for creators working with digital mediums. In a way, the retro, pixelated and avatar-esque style of Lofty Leaderz is a wink within itself to the history of online narratives and the history that is created now, not in a battlefield or a palace room, but rather within our screens in the metaverse, but all the more real.

The history of leaders we've heard about growing up might as well also be the history of internet personalities, viral memes or hashtags that have fuelled social movements 50 years from now.