objkt Meets - Cem Hasimi

In this second episode of objkt Meets, a video interview series now presented on our social media channels, Kika Nicolela hosts a conversation with Cem Hasimi.

The artist is exhibiting from Thursday, September 26th, to the 29th at the British Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery, featuring Pivotal: Digitalism. Simultaneously, he releases “A Series of Grieving” with objkt.one Gallery—a four-piece collection based on a flux of emotions stemming from his healing process, which is, in many ways, deeply relatable to us as viewers.

Cem, originally from Turkey, is now based in London. He began his professional creative life as an art director in advertising, but his passion for art and storytelling led him to the art world: “I fell in love with the process of creating something from scratch and bringing it to life,” he states.

Anger, Acceptance, Depression, Denial. For each piece crafted in this series, Hasimi discusses his thoughts with Kika. But that’s not all—the artist also speaks about the physical and digital presence, the experience of mounting an exhibition, and how his practice as a designer has influenced his work as an artist.

Cem acknowledges that the NFT space has greatly contributed to the success of his pieces: “That’s the beauty of NFTs. If you’re on Twitter (X), even before NFTs existed, sharing this kind of animation wouldn’t have gone anywhere. It just doesn’t work that way—you have to constantly show love and share everything every day. But with NFTs, it’s different. The hunger for art among people helps you build larger communities, which has helped me a lot,” he explains.

Hasimi says he is not a “social media person” and credits his initial support to the Turkish NFT community, where people spread the word about him. “They said, ‘Hey, this is Cem; he just entered the space—check him out.’ Somehow, I got some good love,” he remembers. Cem realized that the love chain in the NFT space is strong; the more you engage, the more you want to create. “It’s not just about an addiction to social media; it’s different. It’s about seeing your art being loved, seeing people comment on it, wanting to buy it, and even setting it up on the secondary market. That’s actually how I react.

In this episode, you'll find a conversation with a truly sensitive person. Cem is an artist in every sense. Kika points out how notable his work has evolved from his very first drop on hic et nunc to where he stands now on objkt.com—a journey from essential lines to essential lines, with a special twist. “My eyes always want something new, which means that I would like to improve. Maybe not improving in itself, but I like to change and experiment.”

Cem aims to be happy, at the end of the day, with what he's seeing—a kind of satisfaction that is unique to art directors, finding the right feelings to convey to the audience. You can’t miss the entire conversation, live on our objkt.one X account and later on our YouTube channel.

Enjoy!