Exclusive Interview With Vini Naso, 1st Prize Winner of the Digital Art Award Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2025 by Samantha Dexter
Step into a digital dream where the intersection between nature and technology meet not in an attempt to clash with one another but to instead find a unique middle ground. In an era where technology feels destructive and almost frightening to many, android like beings such as Vini Naso’s Hajime off a glimmer of something hopeful and new.
Artificial beings like Hajime are built from cold hard shells, wires, and microchips who simultaneously adorn themselves with the warmth of nature. They cover their metallic skin with moss to simulate body hair and fashion headdresses out of bouquets of flowers. They embrace culture and traditions practiced for centuries and begin to find slivers of their own humanity within elegant jewels and tailored garments. Hajime, and beings like them, are part of our past, present and future all fused into one and whilst they might seem far-fetched now, they offer a beacon of hope for what could be if only we find the courage to change and evolve.
Digital 3 Dimensional, Computer, Zbrush, C4D, Redshift, Marvelous designer
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Vini Naso is a Brazilian artist known for his hyperrealist digital portraits that stand at the intersection between traditional art and innovation. Working in a purely digital format, Vini creates works that are filled with details that take inspiration from nature, textiles, jewellery, artificial intelligence and folk-inspired motifs as he works to blend the past with our future. Themes within his body of work include exploring the human psyche and commentary on media and technology as he challenges and redefines our understandings of both ourselves and our society.
Much of his work has gained international attention and recognition as his work has featured in group exhibitions including “Decade of Ocean” at CCBB in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2024); “Beyond Digital” at Venus Over Manhattan Gallery in New York (2023); “Crypto Art Fair” at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2022).
In 2020, Vini Naso entered into his first Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize where his digital piece ‘Foresters’ won him first place in the ZBrush Digital Art Award. In 2025, Vini continued his success in the Art Prize as his piece Hajime won the 1st Prize in the Digital Art Award category.
“I hope my work resonates beyond language, in that quiet place where intuition lives.”
Interview with Vini Naso
First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on your success in the Beautiful Bizarre 2025 Art Prize! What was your first reaction when you found out the news on your success?
Thank you! When I found out about the award, I felt a mix of gratitude and genuine surprise. Winning once already felt extraordinary, but winning a second time was something I honestly didn’t expect. It arrived at the perfect moment and gave me a real sense of validation when I needed it most.
Why did you decide to enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
For a while, I struggled with motivation and wasn’t sure where my work was heading. When Hajime emerged, I felt a shift and a sense of clarity that this piece marked a new direction in my practice. Entering the prize felt like the right moment to share this evolution with a wider audience and see how people would respond to this emerging aesthetic language.
What do you feel you have gained from this experience?
Being recognised at this stage of my career felt refreshing. It reenergised me. Seeing how viewers connected with Hajime affirmed that the risks I’m taking creatively are worth it. Awards don’t define the work, but they can spark momentum, and this one gave me a renewed sense of enthusiasm for what’s ahead.
I’d love to learn more about Hajime and how this piece can into creation. How did you find working on this piece and what does it mean to you personally?
Throughout my career, I developed two distinct visual worlds, almost like parallel universes. For years, I tried to merge them, to find a cohesive voice that felt authentic. Hajime was the first time those worlds finally spoke the same language. It gave me the feeling that I had arrived at the core of my artistic identity. On a personal level, Hajime symbolizes that convergence, the moment when everything I had been exploring suddenly made sense.
Hajime is described as a pivotal portrait that embodies many themes offering viewers a space to remember our relationship with the Earth and how it is our responsibility to look after it. How do you think we as a society can begin to reconnect with the Earth especially with the rise of issues such as overconsumption and the environmental issues surrounding AI?
My work often reflects the tensions I feel internally, and Hajime is no exception. We live in a culture full of contradictions: we want harmony with nature yet participate in systems that exploit it; we embrace technology yet fear its consequences. I often look to ancestral knowledge and contemplative practices to navigate these conflicts.
I’ve always welcomed new technology into my process, but the rise of AI pushed me to question originality, authorship, and the environmental impact of our tools. Still, I believe creatives need to occupy this space, not abandon it. If technology is moving fast and shaped by billionaires racing for dominance, then artists have a responsibility to bring nuance, ethics, and imagination into the conversation. My work tries to hold these contradictions while inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationship with Earth.
One thing I love about Hajime is how you use nature as a fashionable motif on an android-like being. Would you describe this being as a glimpse into a hopeful future where man, technology and nature can co-exist peacefully?
Hajime isn’t an answer, it’s an invitation to imagine. I dared to picture a future that isn’t defined by extraction, fear, or disconnection. The figure brings nature and technology together not as opposites, but as expressions of the same living system. It’s not just about hope, it’s about responsibility. If we can’t imagine a balanced future, we can’t build one.
You describe Hajime as the first step in an exciting new direction for your art. Upon reflection, how have you found your journey as an artist up until this point? And where do you hope to go from here?
My artistic journey has been a long search for voice and meaning. Each series, from Bate Bola to Masks We Wear to Kodama, has been a signpost pointing toward deeper questions about identity, memory, embodiment, and consciousness. In hindsight, all those pieces prepared me for Hajime.
Now, I feel ready to expand this narrative into something larger: the world of the N.A.I.A.D.S. (Networked Alien Intelligences Against Destructive Systems), my latest art film project. Hajime was the spark; N.A.I.A.D.S. is the world that grows from that spark.
Who/what inspires you?
My influences come from mythology, psychology, neuroscience, and increasingly from contemplative practices. Silent retreats revealed an entire universe of subtle sensations, the kind of inner landscape we perceive when the mind is equanimous and deeply aware. Those moments of insight became a guiding force behind this new direction and heavily inform the emotional and symbolic structure of Hajime and the N.A.I.A.D.S. universe.
What do you hope viewers can take away with them after viewing not only Hajime but your complete body of work?
I hope my work resonates beyond language, in that quiet place where intuition lives. I’m not interested in telling people what to think. Instead, I want to create archetypal images and narratives that open space for personal interpretation. If a viewer leaves with a feeling or insight they didn’t have before, then the artwork has done its job.
Would you recommend the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and encourage others to enter? If so, why?
Winning in 2020 opened many doors. At that time, there were very few awards recognizing digital artists, so the impact was profound. Beautiful Bizarre has consistently supported artists working in unconventional mediums. I believe many artists could benefit enormously from the visibility, community, and validation the prize brings.
What’s next for you in 2026? Any exciting projects on the horizon that you can tell our readers a bit about?
2026 will be a year of expansion. The world of the N.A.I.A.D.S. is growing rapidly — visually, narratively, philosophically. Hajime was just the beginning. Readers can expect new films, new visual languages, and deeper explorations into identity, consciousness, and our relationship with the more-than-human world.