The Sergio Cuan NFT Collection

Nifty Trees
3 min readJan 27, 2022

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M5 Bonsai Works

Sergio Cuan of M5 Bonsai Works

Sergio Cuan is a visual artist who graduated with a BFA in Art and Design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He has a passion for painting and horticulture alike. Early on he realized that bonsai was the ideal synthesis of both. As a result he became fascinated with bonsai as an art form.

Compelling bonsai compositions by Sergio Cuan of M5 Bonsai Works

Sergio is a largely self taught bonsai artist. In 2014 he built a bonsai garden in northern New Jersey in a beautiful setting surrounded by rolling hills, lakes and deciduous forests which continue to influence his work.

The garden, inspired primarily by Japanese design aesthetics, features a diverse bonsai collection of species. Sergio believes that bonsai as a true art form holds commonalities with painting, drawing and sculpture. Although the artist is bound by the physical limitations of the plant material itself, bonsai can be effective vehicles for self expression. But unlike other art forms, bonsai is alive and constantly evolving.

The bonsai practice is an intimate and continued dialogue between artist and nature. This relationship gives bonsai its own unique dimension. Sergio also believes that one must allow for the tree to help guide us as we strive to evoke a clear and crystalized expression of nature in its most essential and simplest form.

Bonsai Heresy by Michael Hagedorn

Bonsai enthusiasts might recognize Sergio’s artistic style from his art present in Michael Hagedorn’s book: Bonsai Heresy. Throughout the various stories and techniques introduces in the novel by Michael, the reader finds a complementary illustration which embodies the essence of the lesson in a cleaver and impactful way. Sergio is the sole artist providing all of bonsai art from cover to cover in the book. A couple of notable plugs: 1) Buy the book from Stone Lantern here. 2) Check out other Bonsai Heresy merch here.

Sneak Views of the First 3 NFTs from the Nifty Trees: Sergio Cuan Collection

Sergio’s first 3 bonsai NFT artworks are ready to go! You can see the Nifty Trees: Sergio Cuan Collection here.

Sergio is a super well respected bonsai artist, and as you can see, a very accomplished graphic artist as well. Our goal here at Nifty Trees is to bring bonsai to Web3 in all different shapes and sizes. Bringing someone of Sergio’s caliber on board with us is very important to our long term plan and we are hoping you’ll help and support Sergio and his work.

Each piece of this collection will be available as follows:

Nifty Trees plans to bring 10–12 of Sergio’s work on board over the course of 2022. Keep on the look out for future updates fom us as we share Sergio’s story and introduce him and bonsai to the NFT world!

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Nifty Trees

Nifty Trees shares the journey of bonsai art. We provide the digital tokenization solution (NFT) of bonsai specimen for immersive experiences.