David Bowie’s estate is launching a new NFT series, “Bowie on the Blockchain,” that sees nine different artists pay homage to the late icon.
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The NFT project was spearheaded by Bowie’s estate, the web3 venture, We Love the Arts, and the NFT marketplace OpenSea. The sale will launch on September 13 with all of the profits being donated to CARE, a nonprofit for which Bowie’s widow, Iman, serves as a global advocate.
Andrew Keller, co-founder of We Love the Arts, credits the musician’s estate for reaching out to get the project underway.
“The more you think about what the crypto art space really is, the more you realize how ahead of his time Bowie was with some of the ways that he engaged with his fans—be it BowieArt, BowieWorld, Bowie Bonds, BowieNet,” Keller told Rolling Stone. “He also made digital art himself, and so what excited me so much was the idea of making people aware of all of these things they probably don’t think about or know about when they think about Bowie, and to me, it really became about solidifying his legacy on the blockchain, and creating beautiful, meaningful art. Having our ‘why?’ was so important, and really guided every piece of this process.”
Keller also said Bowie’s own tastes in art were a driving force behind selecting the artists for the project. Keller and his partner, film producer Joaquin Acrich, also stipulated that the artists needed to have “some sort of a personal connection, which given we are talking about David Bowie isn’t really that hard.” Ultimately they landed on Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, Fewocious, Jake, Defacd, Osinachi, Young and Slick, Lirona, Glam Beckett, and Jonathan Wolfe.
The artists were given special access to artifacts from Bowie’s estate to include in their pieces. “The archive is just amazing and so wildly comprehensive that we were able to provide upon request everything from paintings Bowie made to handwritten notes, stage or costume design sketches for the artists to incorporate as part of their palates,” Keller said. “Some just used it for inspiration, and some actually put digitized versions of the pieces from the archives into their work.”
He continued, “JAKE worked with one of Bowie’s pieces of art from his D-head series. Lirona took Bowie’s autograph and handwriting samples we gave her of writing out the name of her favorite album and turned it into this almost luminescent body art for her signature #BOI character. Then there’s the Fewocious piece, a 1 of 1 NFT that will be on auction, and the buyer will also be getting an incredible, massive, sculpture Fewocious has made that is actually wearing one of Bowie’s suits from the archives.”
(Photo by Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
