Amanda Stanchos

THE DAM SHOW: 24 HOUR LIVESTREAM! x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

‘Clown Party’ by a.c.k. You had to be there. I’ll explain ⬇️

Pink Carousel - pinkcarousel.ack.art

self portrait - tin man (sold) - wizardsstudy.ack.art

Showtime! (sold) - showtime.ack.art

spectACKular - spectackular.ack.art

Heavy Mettle - heavymettle.ack.art

Big reveal of all the rooms! These works are inter-dimensional.

Clown Party by Alpha Centauri Kid Exhibited with Vertu Fine Art at Art Miami Curatorial Note As part of my art practice, I scan over 500 images every single day. That can mean scrolling timelines, visiting artists’ websites, looking through museum archives, or seeing work in person. This practice has gone on for about ten years now. It’s how I process the world through my own eye, through my own vision, in order to develop taste. A taste for curation. A taste that makes me a better curator, a better collector, and sharper in how I understand art over time. When I first saw Clown Party, it was only one or two images, more than a year ago. But it immediately stuck with me. It felt new. Fresh. Different from ACK’s larger body of work. Much of what I had known from him was performance-driven and deeply tied to blockchain culture, but also multimedia, moving between printmaking, sculptural work, and other experimental forms. Clown Party felt separate from that. The imagery felt different. It had personality. There was something contained within it that I wanted to understand more deeply. That intuition pulled me further down a rabbit hole. I wanted to know why this work felt so different and what it was really about. It stood out, and that’s what triggered me. As our relationship became more formal and we began planning Clown Party for Art Miami this year, I spent more time unpacking how this body of work came together, how long it needed to sit, and what the deeper meaning behind it really was. Clown Party is an intimate and personal series. It speaks to memories from decades ago in ACK’s life, a vulnerable period that ultimately became the core subject matter for the work. On the surface, the series feels playful and fun, but underneath that there’s a consistent dark humor and emotional weight that runs through it. The work can be understood through multiple lenses, with almost infinite interpretation. Formally, these works begin as video files drawn from archival material and repurposed through a refined printmaking and proprietary ChromaSculpt process. The scale matters here. These pieces are massive, nearly five by five feet, and they invite the viewer to get close. Really close. In works like Pink Carousel and Heavy Mettle, the subject occupies only a portion of the composition, leaving large areas of textured negative space. That space allows you to get lost. It slows you down and gives you time to understand and signify what the key components are in the series. Then there are works like SpectACKular and Showtime, which feel central to the narrative. These pieces represent the Tin Man and the Clown, ACK and his friend, and the moments they shared. They offer a clearer picture of that world and those memories. They feel more personal. They allow you to step deeper into his lived experience. For me, Goodnight Circus is the defining work of the series. It encapsulates everything ACK has been working toward. It’s beautiful, dark, chaotic, and intimate all at once. It gives you insight into his feelings and thoughts. It feels native and integral to channeling what came before this into what is presently in front of us. I see traces of Goodnight Circus throughout his broader practice. It’s a true standout. The Tin Man portrait was actually my favorite piece in the series. I’ve always been drawn to self-portraits, both within our space and across the broader art world. I’m deeply interested in how artists choose to represent themselves. What struck me most about this portrait is how directly ACK exposes the core imagery pulled from old photos and videos of himself. We live in a pseudo-anonymous world where true personal exposure is often hidden behind screens and usernames. You usually have to pay very close attention to understand who someone really is. In Tin Man, that veil is lifted. It’s referenced clearly in the title, separated from the rest of the series, and stands as a direct representation of ACK himself. One of the most compelling aspects of this project is the relationship between the tangible and the intangible. As you spend time with these works, you begin by noticing depth, light, and shadow within the pigments on the canvas. But over time, you start to realize how intentional ACK is about how viewers engage with the work. Technology plays a role not just in refining the printmaking process, but also in how the work exists on the blockchain. These objects can be dynamic. Interactive. Playful. And still unquestionably fine art. They remain static artifacts of their time, while also opening the door to interactions we haven’t fully seen yet. I think of Ethereum and the blockchain as a medium. It introduces constraints, but it also introduces new affordances that require time, money, and resources in unfamiliar ways. Watching ACK dedicate his practice to this medium for the past four or five years has taught me a lot about how artists can build more direct, transparent, and emotionally resonant relationships with collectors. That kind of emotional connection is incredibly difficult to convey through technology, but when it works, you feel it. That’s why I’m so interested in how people experience Clown Party. These works are more than physical objects and more than digital artifacts. It’s the relationship between the two that opens up something harder to describe. When you encounter the physical painting, it feels clearly distinct, even if you’re unfamiliar with ACK’s broader practice. The same goes for the digital rooms. They have depth and interactivity. You can move through them, click into elements, watch videos, and see physical paintings recontextualized digitally. The rooms themselves become dedicated to the representation of this body of work. The painting is one standalone element, but the entire room offers a digitally native contemporary experience. That relationship is difficult to communicate without standing in front of the physical piece first and foremost, experiencing its scale and texture in real time. Those qualities speak to skill, devotion, and commitment to the practice. That human effort and research is palpable here, and it’s something that feels increasingly rare. This body of work feels deeply human to me. It feels like a moment where I’m being invited closer to ACK as a person. The digital rooms are filled with intimate detail. Light reflects off objects. Sculptural forms reference earlier works. Familiar motifs resurface. The appropriation of his own past work within these environments creates a sense of nostalgia and continuity. Even the music woven into certain elements adds another layer. Clown Party feels like a playground for discovering ACK’s world. It’s realized with intention and grace. This presentation will engage a new audience at Art Miami 2025 with Vertu Fine Art, standing confidently alongside contemporary and pop artists of the past while offering a perspective that is entirely its own. It belongs here. And it stands alone, giving viewers access to a deeply personal corner of ACK’s universe.

@MaryPatBing @lphaCentauriKid @MuseFacktory Loved getting to meet with you Mary! Hope there is another time soon you are the kindest!

Last night @lphaCentauriKid brought together collectors and artists from across the globe for a phenomenal night. The art was stunning, the performance was spectacular. We often say “vibes were immaculate” and in this case they were. Thank you @astanchos and @MuseFacktory for creating such a beautiful experience.

The Grand Skull Piano stands as a watershed moment for crypto art. And how lucky are we to witness it? When I look into the Grand Skull Piano, I see my own reflection in its polished surface. I see centuries of tradition bending around me. I see a shape and shine that claim not only the stage of Carnegie Hall but a place in art history itself. What once bore the name Steinway & Sons now declares its maker a.c.k and daughters. Both sculpture and instrument, the Grand Skull Piano was envisioned as the 49th Broken Key. First conceived while working on the wooden piano in The Mad Pianist, a.c.k sought to bring his scene from Cinema 4D into material existence. And, through trial and error, he succeeded. Fiberglass layered until seamless. A trio of 24 karat gold roses fastened for eternity. Engineering refined until a 420lb skull could sustain the weight of its own vision. Years of commitment and sacrifice have led us to this moment. Although a.c.k would prefer the focus on the Grand Skull Piano, it would be amiss to not knowledge the artist at its center. a.c.k leads a movement defined by self starters. Creators who surrender to the Muse; who educate themselves in new media; who push culture forward - all through sheer persistence. For a.c.k, the skull is not merely ornament but a philosophy. It serves as a confrontation with his own mortality, transforming fear into sound, weight and legacy. And, there is no doubt in my mind that tonight’s performance will leave that legacy. For, it already serves as indelible proof. Proof that digital-native artists can step up from the flickering screens into the physical world of permanence. Proof that the new avant-garde is not hypothetical but real, demanding to be played, seen, and remembered. Proof that unwavering devotion brings forth inspiration and possibility that alters the course of history. Every era has its milestones: Michelangelo’s David, Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring, Picasso’s Guernica. Now, the Grand Skull Piano takes its place among them - both as an echo of the past and as a call to the future. And we, the community, are not merely witnesses. We are its first audience, its first patrons, its first chroniclers. To stand with this work is to stand at the threshold of a movement. This is the next chapter in art history. 
The Grand Skull Piano has been built. 
a.c.k has shown what commitment and creativity makes possible. 
Now, it is ours to carry the legacy forward.

@oveck @lphaCentauriKid Thank you for capturing every moment of the event! Stunning Work!

Congrats on a great show 🎹 💀 @lphaCentauriKid thank you for having me be a part of it. Sometimes the birds view is the best sit on the house.

@yungwknd @lphaCentauriKid @dave_krugman Thank you!!! We couldn’t have made it all happened without you. Great memories!

home now, what a wknd so grateful to everyone who made the journey to nyc to witness the grand exhibition! a huge s/o to a.c.k., his family, the team, and everyone behind the scenes who made it happen truly a night to be remembered forever!

An absolute honor 🌹🎹

we will be sharing the exhibition footage, along with the closing performance by Olga in the next week or two. we had 230+ guests from all over the world! thanks again to everyone who took time out of their busy lives to come be part of the Grand Exhibition

Thank you all for the kind words ♥️

So much of my work for the Grand Exhibition at Carnegie Hall happened behind the scenes… long days, early mornings, and the fear of failure that never fully left me, fading at times only to return like a whisper in my ear. Despite any fear, we pressed forward. We knew in our hearts this has to happen and it will. The Grand Skull Piano must have its debut night and the last two and half years of work must be honored, celebrated, and shared. After eight full months of event planning the time had come to bring everything we envisioned to life. From transport to hanging the final work of art on the wall, @MuseFacktory was blessed with the hands of friends and family working hard to prepare for our guests’ arrival. There are so many thank you's to be said and stories to be shared. For now I will simply describe the stages of emotion during setup using a few titles of a.c.k.'s @lphaCentauriKid Broken Keys... The Looming Unknown, Chaos, and Serendipity.  As a team we supported one another in finding solutions to each unexpected issue and finding strength and perseverance through the exhaustion and demanding build. We truly created a bond with one another that will last beyond this event. When the time came to leave Carnegie Hall to change and reset our minds for the event I walked with my husband back to our hotel room in a daze. We both could not believe this was all happening.. It’s really happening! And then the night unfolded… the beauty of the historical venue, the multiple galleries displaying over eighty works, and the Grand Skull Piano becoming a piece of living art embraced by our guests from all around the world. To everyone’s surprise, we closed the evening with an unforgettable private performance by world-renowned pianist Olga Kern @kernolga1 whose brilliance at the keys left the room breathless. She performed Mozart’s Lacrimosa, filling the Weil Music Room with a reverence that hushed the entire room, followed by a soaring progression of Rachmaninoff that carried us through waves of intensity and release.  She performed in a custom crimson gown by visionary designer Alex Teih paired with stunning jewelry by @Alex__Soldier. The gown was a piece of art itself… regal, commanding, and unforgettable. Every fine detail was masterfully designed with intention. I had the view of the audience, immersed in every note. It was the most beautiful moment of the night, one I will cherish forever. The power and sound of the Grand Skull Piano, amplified through the sculpted skull and open lid, carried each note deeper into the room. Olga brought the Grand Skull Piano to life right before everyone’s eyes… a memory etched in the hearts and minds of our guests forever. The closing of the evening was perfect.  What I did not expect was the overwhelming emotion I felt as I gazed upon the audience. I realized standing there this may have been planned to be a closing performance but instead, with each key igniting something within me, the whispers of fear diminished and a soft yet strong message: “this is an opening.” For what is to come I cannot say, but the door is open and Muse Facktory will keep moving forward. Photo Credits: Ovek Reyes @oveck

The Grand Exhibition 🌹💀🎹 A single moment in time… that I am so honored to be apart of. And thank you to all our guests for your kind words of encouragement. I hope everyone had a night they will never forget. Cheers brother @lphaCentauriKid

Building grand friendships Builds the grandest love for art This is how @lphaCentauriKid builds