The .ART Art Market Recap: Joe Exotic, CryptoPunk and More
So little time, so many new things going on in the world of digital art and more...
If you want to stay clued in, but don't have the time to trawl through endless content, you've come to the right place. Every two weeks, we give you a quick update on the hottest art headlines.
Image above: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
1. The world’s first physical gallery for NFTs is hosting a new exhibition, curated by a 17-year-old artist
The Digital Diaspora, an exhibition curated by Diana Sinclair, is meant to raise greater awareness of Black art and artists, but also benefit the Black queer community. Proceeds from the auctions will go towards championing the work of herstoryDAO, a digital collective dedicated to the preservation and funding of artistic endeavours by Black women and non-binary people, and G.L.I.T.S., an organization providing free housing and protections for Black trans people.
2. CryptoPunk ‘Alien’ NFT sells for $11.8M at Sotheby’s auction
On Thursday, June 10th, a digital collectible in the Cryptopunks series with the alien characteristic sold on Saturday for $761.888 after a bidding war between potential buyers. Punk 2890 is one of the nine alien Cryptopunks, and it’s the first one changing owners in three years. This is by far the biggest Cryptopunks sale thus far. Two other “alien punks” recently sold for more than $7.5 million each, according to CryptoSlam, and seven other CryptoPunks sold for over $1 million. In May, a collection of nine CryptoPunks sold for nearly $17 million at Christie’s.
3. ‘Tiger King’ star Joe Exotic is selling NFTs from prison
Viral meme sensation Joe Exotic is releasing his first digital-art collection from his prison cell in Fort Worth, Texas. The former zoo operator known for his role in the Netflix docuseries “Tiger King” is launching a collection of crypto-art pieces in partnership with a US cryptocurrency club called MORE. NFTs operate as a unique type of digital asset or token, and have in some instances sold for millions of dollars apiece. “Being able to auction off collectibles makes me feel connected with the outside world, especially without my cats by my side,” he said.
4. Inventor of the World Wide Web is auctioning its original source code as an NFT
British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, dubbed the “Father of the Web” will auction the original source code for the World Wide Web as an NFT. The work includes the original archive of dated and time-stamped files from 1990 and 1991, containing 9,555 lines of source code and original HTML documents that taught the earliest web users how to use the application. In a statement, Berners-Lee discussed his creation of the internet. “Three decades ago, I created something which, with the subsequent help of a huge number of collaborators across the world, has been a powerful tool for humanity,” he said. “While I do not make predictions about the future, I sincerely hope its use, knowledge, and potential will remain open and available to us all to continue to innovate, create and initiate the next technological transformation that we cannot yet imagine.”
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5. Iconic ‘Doge’ meme becomes most expensive meme NFT ever sold at $4 million
The extremely popular “Doge” meme, an image of a Shiba Inu, has been sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $4 million. The auction winner, whose Twitter handle is @pleasrdao, placed a bid for 1,696.9 of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, NBC News reported citing auction site Zora. The report said that it had become the most expensive meme NFT ever sold. The meme, widely shared on the internet, inspired the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. “We’re so happy to be a part of this milestone in internet history. If any meme deserved to be the new meme NFT record holder, it’s Doge,” said Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of the internet meme database Know Your Meme. Atsuko Sato, the owner of Kabosu – the dog in the image, put up the meme for auction on June 8th.
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