fxGems is curated by Haiver. Follow on Twitter and Mastodon for recommendations, and sign up for email notifications for when a new issue drops. To support the work, collect a copy of this issue or past issues, or consider minting one of my generative pieces here on fx(hash).

With 1859 projects released in November 2021, it's impossible for every good generative art project to fit in the fxGems Best of Lists for abstract and representational art, so the Honorable Mentions was born. And there are many possible reasons a project ended up in the Honorable Mentions instead of on a Best of List. There wasn't enough variety across the minted pieces, or some of the layouts were strong but other mints could have used more self-awareness between their parts. The piece was well executed but lacked originality, or the piece was original but lacked execution. Or there were a limited number of color palettes when the piece would have really shone with a few more.

Or perhaps the artist still has room to grow, but we should start rooting for them now. The algorithm needed to be pushed further, techniques stacked together, or the process used made less obvious (I'm looking at you flow fields). Or they're using a library with such a distinctive look, like Hydra, that the project struggles to stand out from the crowd. And then there are the artists who had a stronger piece make the fxGems Best of List this month and we're trying to spread the love around instead of having the same few names appear repeatedly at the top (but don't want you to miss a very fun piece either!).

It's important to note that fxGems is not a ranked list. One part of good curation is putting pieces in conversation with one another, so each numbered mint featured here has been carefully selected, then ordered into groups of twos and threes to create a dialogue between the different projects. There are juxtapositions and echoes, recurring themes and visual motifs. A thread has been woven throughout. How it draws you from one project to the next is up to you to find.

If you’re looking for more recommendations, check out the representational and abstract Best of Lists, as well as the many Honorable Mentions, covering November 2021.

FXHASH Generative Logo by fxhash

[Löv] by Juhani Halkomäki

Winterland by TeNinEight

Fifty Postcards From Mars by 0xm4_0

Tree Of Thoughts by Gen_Doodler

The Circuit Cure by 3amkind

Dungeon *Playable* Crawler by Mate Steinforth

Walking Bugs by Job Talle

Zpritez by KilledByAPixel

DNA by Sh!g

Galaxy Simulator by P1x3lboy

Three Body Problem Redux by aebrer

Plottable Mountain Moons by greweb

Topographic Playing Card by meodai

The Moth Experiment by Malavika Reddy

Flower by Camille Roux

Sprouting Buddies by Metamoar

Tales of an Older Future by AlexandreRangel

Distortion City #03 by Jinyao Lin

Deep Sketch by balintkulcsar

Figi by excited

Punevyr’s Face by punevyr

Snowflake by w1nt3r

Mountains by ruuddotorg

Generative Swans 2 by n-e-o

City Fragments: Tokyo Shinjuku by akizuki

The Plant IV by ge1doot

Lost Box by lomz

Socks by innadakota

The Value Of Art by ModernGenerative

fxGems is not affiliated with fx(hash) or fx(text) (hence the lack of parentheses), and none of the recommendations herein should be construed as financial advice. We’re here to celebrate the art!

Each month I go one by one through all of the projects that dropped on fx(hash) to find the strongest, most compelling work — generative art that has a unique voice, a wide variety across its many mints, and an intriguing approach to algorithms and technique.

So don't forget to subscribe, follow, and collect ;)