Michael Kutsche

Michael Kutsche is an award winning German painter and character designer based in Los Angeles. Self taught, he works in both digital and traditional media and became one of the most sought after character designers in film, with credits including Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful, John Carter, Thor, and Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, working for studios such as Disney, Marvel, DreamWorks and Warner Bros. In 2021 he brought his personal work on chain, minting his first piece, SEEKER, on SuperRare in April 2021 and releasing a steady line of one of one paintings there since. His crypto art blends visual elements from centuries of art history with mythical creatures, historical figures and pop culture, producing what he calls fragments of anachronistic fairy tales that examine the human condition, nostalgia and our perception of time. Institutional recognition followed: fragmental sold in Sotheby's Contemporary Discoveries auction in Hong Kong in 2023, Goodbye Horses was chosen for PROOF's Grails IV, Mi Casa Es Tu Casa was part of the CoinDesk Most Influential 2023 drop, and Hard to Be a God entered the Fakewhale vault. He has also announced Phantom Zero, a long gestating character project he began developing in 2015.

One of one digital paintings and animated works minted mainly on SuperRare, plus occasional Manifold editions. He merges old master and art movement references with mythical creatures and pop culture into surreal, anachronistic fairy tale scenes, often rendered with painterly 3D and glitch touches.

• Character design for Alice in Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful, John Carter, Thor and The Jungle Book
• SEEKER, his first SuperRare mint (2021)
• fragmental, sold at Sotheby's Contemporary Discoveries, Hong Kong 2023
• Goodbye Horses, part of PROOF Grails IV
• Mi Casa Es Tu Casa, CoinDesk Most Influential 2023
• Phantom Zero, his announced character collection

On the show