Cycol Gallery and the Next Wave of the Art Market

JT Liss has been a pillar of the New York art world for over a decade – in fact he was the first artist we published on our website. Starting off in photography and eventually growing into digital collage work, Liss has continued to branch out and stamp an even deeper impact in the city’s artistic scope. Today, he is an internationally exhibited artist, the President of Exchange Art, Director of BONK Art Masters, and the Founder/Director of Cycol Gallery.

When discussing the formative years of his career he recalled, “The street art community was kind enough to kind of take me under their wing, even though I had no business being a part of it. Then I was able to branch out, and I had a solo show in Barcelona in 2015. One thing about what I personally have done since the beginning is I never waited for a gallery to give me the acceptance.” Never waiting on the world to offer him a seat at the table, Liss has instead focused on finding and fostering non-traditional models of exhibiting.

He recalled, “Probably about 10 years ago, I connected with Donald Murphy at a spot in the Upper East Side. He was doing the Stay Up Gallery. We just started working together and putting together shows… with a lot of people from the street art community, graffiti. It was really cool. We produced those shows for a few years.” 

Liss continued to make work and in 2021 became acquainted with a burgeoning facet of the arts industry, the digital art blockchain space.

Liss continued to make work and in 2021 became acquainted with a burgeoning facet of the arts industry, the digital art blockchain space. “I didn’t foresee this being a sustainable thing, but I was curious, so I explored it, and I got an invite to this one site at the time, because a street photographer kind of hooked me up with it, and I minted my work, and it was crickets, no one knew who I was… So then I had to take a step back. How do I want to enter this space? Around that time, Solana was kind of popping up, and they had a new site called Exchange, and people were talking about it. I was on the Ethereum side for a while, and it cost me 1200 bucks to mint four pieces of art. It was just ridiculous fees. But on Solana, it was pennies on the dollar, and it was super-fast.” Immersing himself in Solana Liss was able to sell the entirety of his collection, Face Value, that spanned seven years of his life.

In 2022 the market dropped significantly, artwork was not selling and people were either leaving the industry or the city entirely. Liss decided he wouldn’t be scared away so easily. He thought to himself, “there’s something here. I’m gonna stay and see this through. And not only that, I’m gonna try and build this up the way I envision it should be, based on my years of experience in the traditional art world, seeing the things that worked, seeing the things that didn’t work, and trying to find a happy medium between them. I started doing art shows and events on behalf of Solana – Bonk was another one. We produced these events and it was great, because we could get artists from six of the seven continents, because it was digital. We could have people send us the work, and we could display it anywhere.” 

Bonk is a prominent coin built on the Solana blockchain. Launched on Christmas Day 2022, it was designed to increase liquidity and serve as a “people’s coin” to counteract venture capital dominance following the FTX collapse.

Bonk is a prominent coin built on the Solana blockchain. Launched on Christmas Day 2022, it was designed to increase liquidity and serve as a “people’s coin” to counteract venture capital dominance following the FTX collapse. The coin has since grown into an ecosystem that has branched out into the traditional finance sector, granting users more fiscal sustenance. Liss expounded on the leg up this gives creatives, “so artists, developers, builders in the ecosystem, were able to sustain themselves longer because of that, and people rallied around Bonk. From there, Bonk was able to continue to build within the ecosystem and support projects.”

Liss then received a call from one of the core members of the Bonk ecosystem offering him a prominent role as the Director of Bonk Art Masters. Liss continued to produce events and shows using the model from non-traditional settings. He explained, “people were hitting me up, like, ‘Yo, how can I be a part of the show? I really want to be a part of the show.’ I didn’t want to be the person playing God, so to speak, curating and doing everything. So I was like, what if we came up with a grants program that empowered artists to put on their own shows throughout the world? We got some funding for it, and we’ were able to give small, micro grants to artists all over the world.” To date, Liss and his team have produced 70 exhibitions across the globe. 

It was around this time that the good people of Bonk ran the idea of acquiring Exchange Art by Liss. What’s more they asked Liss if he would serve as the marketplace’s president. He recalled, “I began running the marketplace and I had a vision for what I think it could be and what I still think it could be, and it involved a lot of culture building and legitimacy building. People outside of this world see it almost as a joke. They don’t take it seriously, but there are a lot of very talented artists on the digital side and the physical side who, from a marketplace perspective, deserve to be able to be bought and sold.” In addition to this appealing factor, Exchange Art and Bonk allows artists to carry a higher level of legitimacy when it comes to their work by expanding reach and revenue.

The next grand idea to come forward was to open a gallery that would be supported by Solana and Bonk, with Exchange Art serving as the marketplace.

The next grand idea to come forward was to open a gallery that would be supported by Solana and Bonk, with Exchange Art serving as the marketplace. Liss was intrigued by the idea and was offered the position of running the gallery. In the Fall of 2025 Cycol Gallery opened, derived from several inspirations; it’s a hybrid of his children’s names as well as a play on words about “the cyclical nature of an artist’s journey. The ebbs and flows, the peaks and valleys of your career, and coming back to what has driven you from the get go, which is the art. It also represents the cycles of the market.”

Running his own space was something Liss had never imagined, let alone in a physical/digital format, but it seemed to be the next unexpected logical step in his journey. “All the things that I was saying to artists for the past three years, now I’m able to have these conversations and be like, ‘Hey, we have a spot. It’s incredible.’” He continued, “You don’t have to change anything you’re doing as an artist. All that NFT is, is a certificate of authenticity, it simplifies things so much for them. The main goal is to bring a lot of established artists onto the blockchain.”

The ease and appeal of Exchange Art has ushered in a new area of conversation surrounding the scope and reach of visual artists. The process for artists to create a profile begins with linking one’s email or social media to their profile. They can then connect their wallet to the site. When artists create a piece that they intend to mint, it only requires the photograph of the physical work. They can then add descriptions, dimensions, or other details while creating a digital ledger of their work which can be accessed by a global collector base, as opposed to only a local one.

While this new digital avenue could be perceived by some as threatening, a means to replace physical art entirely, Liss emphasized that this new digital space will act more as a tool, rather than a substitution.

While this new digital avenue could be perceived by some as threatening, a means to replace physical art entirely, Liss emphasized that this new digital space will act more as a tool, rather than a substitution. He explained, “People think it’s strange, but is it? Is it strange to collect digital work? It might have been a while back, because we want these tangible things. And I still believe the tangible aspect is important. The displays we create, they’re for sale also, because coming from that traditional side, I think it’s very important to have the tangible. Digital art is never going to replace physical art, ever. But is it going to run alongside it? I strongly believe that it’s going to become a secondary market.”

Digital art is never going to replace physical art, ever. But is it going to run alongside it? I strongly believe that it’s going to become a secondary market.”

The name of the long-term game for artists is diversification, multiple streams of revenue, which as Liss explained is one of the benefits of using a blockchain. “What we’re doing with Exchange is providing a lot of educational components to get solely digital artists out into the world more. Build up their CVs, get them into more professional settings that can help build their career. On the flip side, with traditional artists, they potentially have another stream of income.” 

The market also allows artists to protect the integrity of their work and collect what they are due for their efforts. When artists mint their work they also set their percentages, shielding them from losing fair pay for their art. Liss explained, “I know every artist has had instances where they sold a piece to someone, and that person sold it to someone else, but they didn’t give a cut, let alone tell them…If you didn’t have a prior contract, you’re kind of fucked.”

Cycol Gallery had its official launch in November of 2025, opening with a photography exhibition curated by Steve Sweatpants, the creator of Street Dreams Magazine, a global media collective and publication. Liss recalled of the exhibition, “it was an honor to have him on the curator team. Over 400 people showed up at the opening, sold a few pieces, and it was just a great, great start.”

This was followed up by Not Quite Still curated by Lowbrow, who has been involved with the Solana community for many years. The show opened in New York and closed in Paris, allowing artists to add both shows and locations to their CV.

Moving forward Liss and his team, featuring newly appointed Assistant Director of Gallery Operations Lamp, are going to be focusing on building “small group shows and solo shows with some really well-established artists within the street art & graffiti  communities.

Moving forward Liss and his team, featuring newly appointed Assistant Director of Gallery Operations Lamp, are going to be focusing on building “small group shows and solo shows with some really well-established artists within the street art & graffiti  communities. Cycol’s most recent show SEEN, curated by Harris Lobel,  has continued this trajectory, featuring digital as well as physical works by street art mavens Elle, Sen2, and Dain. 

Liss and the Cycol team aim to sustain an environment where “digital artists and traditional artists can come together, have conversations about each other’s worlds, learn from one another, and realize that we’re all just creatives trying to do some cool shit. That’s the big dream, to have this be something that continues to flourish down the road, and to have it be a space for all artists.”  

Related Articles 

Miki Mu: Moving in Creative Connection

Sprayin’ Stories: Capturing the Artists Behind the Walls

Perfection is Boring: We Are All Damaged Goods

The Endless Sun-Days of Xevi Sola