Beeple Combines Digital Art with Physical Collectibles

At Friday midnight UTC time the legendary graphics artist Beeple will auction digital art on Nifty Gateway, combined with physical collectibles. There will be 21 one-of-a-kind single editions, three open editions that can be ordered for five minutes, and one $1 artwork with one hundred editions. The entire process will start on Friday and ends on Sunday.

The $1 artwork combines all Beeple Everydays art from 2020 in one animated collage. This also means that the artwork isn’t finished yet. The first time Beeple sold a $1 artwork, it sold out within seconds. On the secondary market these works are now listed for at least 2900 dollars. Without a doubt these will be wanted assets once again.

At the same time there will be three artworks available for only 5 minutes. Anybody can pay 969 dollars for a digital artwork combined with a physical collectible. Personally, I like “Infected Culture” as it ties in with gaming culture… even though Beeple is trolling by showing a death Pikachu and describing the artwork ‘1999 first edition shadowless holographic charizard #4’.

Did you know Beeple has been creating his Everydays art without missing a day for ten years? Not sure if that’s true, but he share is very active. Anyway, during the weekend Beeple will auction 21 one-of-a-kind artworks that also come with a physical collectible. The final auction is a bundle of all his 2020 work. I predict a new NFT record over the weekend.

Combining physical with digital art

It’s not the first time we see digital artists selling their crypto art in combination with a physical piece. Trevor Jones did it. Fewocious did it. Even Christie’s sold a physical artwork in combination with a non-fungible token, even though that artwork was more like the other way around. Collectors like unique works, no matter whether it’s physical or digital. However, having something in your hands always feel magical. Last week some AI designed sneakers were sold.

Even in gaming we’ve seen some interest in owning physical collectibles. Ether Legends launched some physical collectibles back in June. In addition Gala Games partnered with Brave and launched an engraved collectible in the Brave Swag Store.

What is crypto art?

Crypto art or digital art has been around for many years. However, without the existence of blockchain technology it was impossible to verify authenticity and rarity. Now digital art is connected to a token on the Ethereum blockchain. That way buyers can see how many copies of a certain artwork there are, and whether the product is original.

The concept of seeing a digital image as art, is one thing. However, for many people it will be a challenge to consider digital images as valuable. Consider this: The Mona Lisa is worth many millions of dollars. If I would paint the Mona Lisa in an exact copy, it would be worth only 50 dollars. Because we all know where the original version is. Being able to verify the authenticity and rarity of a piece of art is crucial.

Some people don’t care about the Mona Lisa. It’s just a painting. They are happy to download an image for Google Images, print it on canvas and hang it in their living room. Others want the real deal. The same rules go up for digital crypto art.