Chikai

Chikai Ohazama is a Japanese American artist, filmmaker and collector who came to crypto art from deep inside big tech. He holds a PhD in biomedical engineering and was a co-creator of Google Earth, and he has worked on web3 at Niantic, the studio behind Pokemon Go and Ingress. He entered the NFT space first as a collector, then built MONOLITH Gallery, a digital gallery that houses his private collection and argues for curation as advocacy for artists rather than gatekeeping. In April 2022 MONOLITH was one of ten independent galleries voted onto SuperRare through its DAO, and it went on to run shows with SCOPE and Quantum and to exhibit on Nifty Gateway and Foundation. His own practice, which he calls cinematic AI, layers narrative through generative models and outputs both large satin metal prints and moving image editions. He shows internationally, including Norway, London, Rome, Dubai, Miami and New York. His self portrait piece Anomalia was a 2025 Lumen Prize Still Image finalist, and his short film Saving Nine opened the first Napa Valley Asian American Film Festival.

Chikai makes what he calls cinematic AI: layered, surreal narrative imagery built with generative models, released as large satin metal print editions and as moving image ERC-721 editions. His named bodies of work include the four part HOMINIS series, the self portrait Anomalia, Panopticon and Anthrocinematica. As a collector and curator he runs MONOLITH Gallery, holding work by artists such as Niceaunties, Reuben Wu, Jenni Pasanen, Ayla El-Moussa and Roope Rainisto.

• Founder of MONOLITH Gallery, a SuperRare DAO approved independent gallery
• Circle of Frens, a 500 piece generative project built from eight artists' palettes
• HOMINIS, a four part series of 30 by 30 inch satin metal prints
• Anomalia, a 2025 Lumen Prize Still Image finalist
• Co-creator of Google Earth and web3 lead at Niantic
• Saving Nine, the short film that opened the Napa Valley Asian American Film Festival

On the show