Minty.art Newsletter #21 - Bernie Mittens, $750,000 Crypto Punk, Justin Roiland $1.65 Million Collection
Pioneering Digital Patronage
Welcome to this week’s Minty round-up covering some of the most significant events in Crypto Art and NFTs. Stick around to see our pick for Artist of the Week.
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What is Minty.art?
“At Minty, we are powering creativity for the next generation of artists.”
We believe in using blockchain technology in innovative ways that empower both artists and collectors. Revolutionizing the way modern-day art is created, bought, and sold. Minty is a digital platform that supports, democratizes, and modernizes art creation. By reinventing digital patronage, we find a way of connecting collectors and patrons to the art and artists they love.
$750,000 CRYPTO PUNK SALE
Created by Larva Labs@larvalabs, The CryptoPunks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters that collectors can collect and showcase. They were originally free to be claimed by anyone with an Ethereum wallet, but are now being sold on the blockchain marketplace.
Punk 2890 was bought for 605 ETH ($761,888.57 USD) by 0x24c5eb from seller 0x6611fe. Each Crypto Punk has unique attributes, such as background color, accessories, and some ultra-rare features, such as an alien appearance. The Alien Punk that was sold, #2890, is only one of nine alien Punks in existence.
Crypto investor G Money @gmoneyNFT supported the astronomical purchase, stating “I think it was a great purchase. As the world moves more digital, the digital "flex" will be more and more important. It's how humans operate in the physical world. It won't change in the digital realm”.
MEME OLYMPICS 2021
Upcoming artist Moestradamus has created a collection of politically inspired collectible cards that feature highlights from the recent events of 2021. The new series of Memelympics Cards launched on Friday with the first card Bernie "Mittens'' Sanders, and yesterday saw the second card, “Fly Mike Pence”, launch on the site. Each card is a 3 of 3 NFT, only two of the Bernie cards are left, and LSQ Shaman just launched!
Plans for this new CryptoArt release will be announced very soon, so be sure to stay tuned!
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$370,000 BIRTHDAY SALE
The 18-year-old artist FEWOCiOUS @fewocious has recently had a birthday they’ll never forget, as their recent artwork NFT drops totaled to over $370,000. FEWOCiOUS is expecting bigger things from the growing NFT art market this year stating, “I know way more than I did. I’m older and have more life experience. Crypto has made me more confident and I’m only just going into the year”.
FEOWCiOUS sold his first piece, “She Makes Me Feel Alive” for 10 ETH in September (worth approximately $6,000 at the time). He again made crypto headlines with his NYC Skyline artwork, a piece commissioned by the co-founders of blockchain hedge fund Morgan Creek Digital, Anthony Pompliano, and Jason Williams, selling for 1.1 BTC ($21.350) in December.
JUSTIN ROILAND $1.65 MILLION COLLECTION
In our previous Minty newsletter, we covered Rick and Morty’s co-creator Justin Roiland’s recent entry to the Crypto Art scene. Roiland’s first artwork collection features many unseen original drawings from the prolific artist and the auction ended with a bang as his debut crypto art collection was sold for roughly $1.65 million in total.
“The Smintons” is an original price by Roiland parodying the popular TV show “The Simpsons” by Matt Groening. Both a physical and digital version of the piece was created, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Los Angeles homeless encampments.
Collector of the Week
This week we have an exclusive interview with the Infinite Art Museum @infiniteartmuse
Hey Nigel,
Hello and welcome, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions today. This is quite a special project you are undertaking and it has been a joy exploring the Infinite Art Museum.
So your collection is already quite a success, congratulations. What kind of growth are you seeing at the IAM and how do you have plans on managing that growth going forward?
Initially, the project was a Steam App developed in Unity that includes just under 900 original works of art. Since late last year, I have switched from a single large gallery available only in VR through download to a series of individual web-based VR galleries. There are about 30 of those on the IAM website adding up to probably around 200 pieces of art. Usually, the project increases by one or two new galleries every month.
There has been a strong interest, particularly in the crypto art community. Virtual reality and crypto art are a natural fit and many artists are looking for alternatives to centralized "metaverse" based galleries. The limiting factor of the IAM is that I hand-code each gallery in HTML using A-Frame. That takes time and the IAM is still a part-time project.
I do intend to work with as many artists as possible going forward but I've also begun preparing an online course that will teach artists how to design and create their own free web-based art gallery. As much as I love being involved, it's much more important to get the tools and knowledge out there to people who can experiment with and use them for themselves. The Infinite Art Museum is more of an idea and if it turns into multitudes of artists and collectors creating galleries for themselves then I will consider it a true success.
Given the current climate, the rate of digital art and interest in this industry has soared. Do you think we will ever go back to the times of mass crowds at brick and mortar galleries? Where the majority of people view art in person as opposed to online? The advantages of viewing art online seem to outweigh that of in real life no?
Technology is redefining the world of art as something that nearly anyone can be a part of and that's a huge market. Ultimately the majority of people will view art through digital media and often in VR - but that won't detract from traditional galleries and museums. It's rare that any new technology completely replaces an older one. Brick and mortar galleries will continue but they will be a comparatively small part of a much larger art world.
For all artists out there perhaps you could explain to them how they can participate in the Infinite Art Museum? I am sure there is much reading who would love to be a part of such an extraordinary project.
Currently, the only way to participate is to collaborate with me personally. I work one to one with artists in each gallery to help them realize their specific visions. However, as you can imagine, this process doesn't scale. For that reason, I'll be releasing an online course this year teaching all the steps to create your own free web-based VR gallery. The tools are all free and available and I hope that this will encourage artists to construct their own galleries without me being a bottleneck.
You are working on WebXR making it available online for all VR headsets and without a large download. Can you expand on that a little, please? It is going to be accessible to anyone with a VR headset and a browser?
Initially, the IAM was an app made with Unity3D for PC VR headsets and downloadable from Steam (and the app is still free and available.) However, it became obvious that there was a limit to how big it could grow in that format.
WebXR started as WebVR is a protocol originally started by Mozilla and now embraced by most major browsers and that makes VR and AR content viewable as easily as standard web pages. As a result, IAM galleries can be viewed on standard web pages with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard but they can also be experienced in full VR with a headset. All you need is a compatible browser. All galleries are free and because they are web pages instead of apps, you just need to let the page load and you are ready for VR.
Thanks for your time once again and anybody who hasn’t already can check out the Infinite Art Museum either through the website, Steam, and through your browser in VR!
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