Mike Winkelmann, the US graphic designer and digital artist also known as Beeple, who produces 3D graphics, video loops and concert visuals for artists such as Justin Bieber, One Direction and Katy Perry, never stops working.
He has created and posted online a new picture every day for the past 13 and a half years, never missing a single day.
On March 11, he got his reward.
Christie’s, in its first auction of a purely digital artwork, sold a non-fungible token (NFT) representing ownership of a collage of 5,000 of these images called ‘Everydays: The first 5,000 days’.
Winkelmann has attracted 1.8 million followers on Instagram. The collage collects images in loose chronological order and allows viewers to zoom in on what Christie’s describes as pictures by turn abstract, fantastical, grotesque or absurd, deeply personal or representative of current events.
“Christie’s had never offered a new media artwork of this scale or importance before,” says Noah Davis, specialist in post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s in New York.
He is not quite in Musk’s league yet, but until October Winkelmann had never sold a print for more than $100
Euromoney particularly likes the image Winkelmann posted a few days after the auction of non-fungible Elon, a play on Musk’s own Twitter image of himself holding up a dogecoin after his tip drove up the price of that mock-crypto.
Winkelmann