In brief
- The musician and visual artist M.I.A. has announced an NFT art series.
- The first drop is coming this Thursday on Foundation.
The musician and visual artist M.I.A. has announced an NFT auction, coming this Thursday on Foundation.
The piece is called “GIFTY 1,” part of a collection called NFT GARAGE DANCE. She’s also planning a follow-up, titled “KALA COYN.”
NFTs are non-fungible tokens—specialized units of cryptocurrency that can be attached to files (typically GIFs and JPEGs) and sold online through dedicated marketplaces. (Foundation is one such platform.)
The market for these digital collectibles has exploded over the past few months, with musicians like Grimes, Kings of Leon, Yaeji, Jacques Greene, Rico Nasty, and Toro Y Moi all releasing collections of visual art and music as NFTs. Aphex Twin released an NFT last month, also through Foundation, which sold for $136,000. Grimes’ collection sold for around $6 million, and Kings of Leon made over $2 million.
Bigger profits are being generated in the world of visual art; the digital artist Beeple sold an image file for $69 million.
Aphex Twin Hid a Mystery Date in his NFT
Enigmatic British electronic musician Richard D. James, better known as Aphex Twin, has hidden an easter egg for fans in his first NFT. Named ‘afx\/weirdcore\blockscanner,’ the digital art piece was a collaboration with frequent collaborator/digital artist Weirdcore. Fans only had 24 hours to bid, but the winning bid was 72 ETH, which amounted to $136,349 at the time. We will spend a portion of the money on planting trees and either donating to permaculture projects or setting them up ourselves...
M.I.A. hasn’t released an album since 2016’s AIM, but was involved in the production of a 2018 documentary called Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. about her art and music. “KALA COYN” is a reference to M.I.A.’s 2007 album Kala, which was named after her mother.
“KALA COYN and the GARAGE DANCE series is a living, breathing, psycho-spectral canvas that crystalizes this moment in time for me,” said M.I.A. in a statement. “Visually, it's a mind f*ck and embodies everything I've loved about the digital art arena. It’s only now that the appropriate gallery for my work finally exists.”
The bidding for “GIFTY 1” starts this Thursday, April 8, at 4pm Eastern.
