Art Market Report - October 15
A weekly report on the NFT Art Market, covering 1/1s, generative art, editions and other important news.
1/1s
Elon, God of memes., ACK’s first mint on blockchain in 2021, was collected by imo.eth for 20 ETH in a private sale. It was previously collected by Field for 3 ETH ~2 years ago. About the piece, ACK wrote in a tweet:
I used this "preACK" wallet to experiment with minting back when I was first learning about NFT technology in March and April of 2021. At that time, I hadn’t yet developed the signature styles I work in today but I’m glad this piece in particular was my first 1 of 1. Meme culture — even if it’s sublimated or less explicit —remains an important undercurrent in my work, and a critical source of inspiration for most practicing digital artists.
In other news, Vogue fucked around and had OpenSea removed ACK’s Vogue for trademark infringement, just to find out and retract its notice. (Learn more: The Power of Voice in the Digital Age: The ACK and Vogue Controversy.)
Learning Nature (b31,2127,10) by David Young, another one of the early blockchain minted GAN artworks in 2018, was collected for 10 ETH on SuperRare’s secondary market. It was previously collected for 0.65 ETH in February 2019. (Learn more: The Historical Significance & Scarcity of Early Blockchain-Minted GAN Art.)
Dave by Osinachi was collected by Michalis Kargakis for 7.2 ETH on SuperRare’s secondary market.
The Detective by Hardley Davidson was collected for 6.23 ETH on SuperRare. A dynamic audio-interactive art experience, the piece was minted using Transient Labs story contract.
The Alchemist by pho was collected by gblsts for 4.5 ETH on SuperRare.
GENERATIVE ART & EDITIONS
After a week of reveals and metadata updates, Winds of Yawanawa by Yawanawa and Refik Anadol had 1,772 ETH (+836%) trading volume on OS in the past 7 days. Floor is currently at 14.33 ETH (+114%).
Velocity Series: Velocity Pass had 197 ETH (+75%) trading volume on OS this week, in anticipation of the upcoming SnowFro drop:
Each iteration from this collection generates a unique embroidery-ready file constructed one stitch at a time at the algorithmic level. The intent is to represent a sense of speed in a simple form factor incorporating color and variability while working within the constraints of a 15 thread embroidery machine.
2 XCOPY edition sales to the same collector: The Doomed (2018, edition of 100) was collected for 21.5 ETH, and Gobshites (2019, edition of 20) for 18.5 ETH.
INDUSTRY NEWS
MoMA has acquired Refik Anadol’s generative artwork ‘Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations – MoMA (2022)’, a generative artwork that uses the museum’s visual archive to produce a machine-learning model that interprets and reimagines images of artworks in MoMA’s collection. The work went on view late last year and was recently extended through October 29. Since going on view, the piece has drawn sizable crowds. The piece, which includes a companion NFT, was donated to the museum by tech entrepreneur Ryan Zurrer, one of the most prolific collectors of digital art, through his 1OF1 Collection, along with the RFC Collection, led by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni. (Learn more: MoMA Acquires Refik Anadol’s Popular Generative Artwork ‘Unsupervised’)
Ryan Zurrer was also included in the newest edition of the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list. He wrote in a tweet:
I am so grateful to so many of my contemporaries in the top 200 for their generosity in sharing their wisdom & thoughtful lessons on how I should be looking at digital art in the long trajectory of art canon.
Zurrer sat down with ARTnews for a two-part interview—first with Winkelmann, and then with Anadol—to discuss the present and future of digital art, the continuing promise of NFTs, and the meaning of creativity in the age of AI: Refik Anadol, Beeple, and Collector Ryan Zurrer Speak on the Future of Digital Art, NFTs, and AI.
Loving reading your reports! Great work 👏