Beeple Building Physical Studio to bring NFTs into the real world

Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann made headlines last year with his record sales of $69.3 million of NFT artwork at a Christie’s auction, and followed it up with one Time magazine cover and “The Tonight Show” appearances. Now he aims to bring the world of NFT to even more people by establishing a real-world studio that will host exhibitions.

Today, Beeple shared a video showing the construction of his massive new studio in Charleston, South Carolina, which appears to be housed in an overhauled warehouse. In the video, we see the first steps as workers tear down walls and develop the space into the future Beeple Studios.

IN a tweet threadwrote Beeple that the space will be an “outlet for not only my artwork, but the entire digital art/NFT community,” with plans to host exhibitions and find unique ways to display NFT artwork for real-world customers to see On-site .

“Coming together and experiencing digital artwork IRL is something that I think will help bring in the next wave of collectors,” he wrote, “and that’s exactly what we need to get past this bear market.”

Beeple added that NFT creators need to “find new ways” to attract people who may have heard of NFTs but don’t fully understand how they work. An NFT is a blockchain token that represents ownership of a unique item, and can be used with things like digital artwork and collectibles, but also real-world items.

“I believe that by showing people that this artwork can absolutely be shared and appreciated in real life, not just on our small screens,” Beeple wrote, “they will see that this medium is just like any other with the ability to bring beauty , provoke thoughtful discussion, and truly move us.”

He didn’t share a timeline for opening the studio or hosting events, but said the video represents the first half of construction and that the second half is already nearly complete.

Beeple first rose to fame as a digital artist who posted daily artwork, as well as a graphic designer whose concert art was used by the likes of Eminem, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. As the NFT market began to expand in late 2020, Beeple began selling his artwork and quickly broke records in the process.

Momentum quickly grew and peaked when Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days”—a collage featuring his previous daily artwork—sold for $69.3 million at auction in March 2021. In November last year, Beeple followed it up with sale of “Human One” a physical/digital hybrid sculpture with an NFT component, for $28.9 million.

Since entering the NFT space, Beeple has emphasized a real-world component with all of its digital sales. “Human One” is set in a holographic terminal with digital artwork that changes dynamically over time. He too collaborated with the startup Infinite Objects to provide buyers with a dedicated video screen for each artwork sold.

Dialectic and Vine Ventures founder Ryan Zurrer, who bought Beeple’s “Human One” last year, called the upcoming Beeple Studios “a strange mix of Warhol’s studio and Bell Labs in their respective primes. He composed a wild combination of engineers and creatives, building next-generation art with space-age tools. It will change the way we think about digital art.”