David Bowie Estate links up with nine artists for new NFT project – Rolling Stone

David Bowie The Estate is launching a new NFT series, “Bowie on the Blockchain”, which will feature works from nine different artists paying tribute to the late music legend.

The NFT project was led by the Bowie estate, web3 venture We Love the Arts and NFT marketplace OpenSea, where sales will start on September 13. All profits from the Bowie estate will be donated to CARE, a non-profit for which Bowie’s widow Iman serves as a global advocate.

Of course, Bowie was an avid collector and admirer of art throughout his life, and Andrew Keller, co-founder of We Love the Arts, credits the musician’s estate with reaching out to get Bowie on Blockchain.

“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 he engaged with his fans — be it BowieArt, BowieWorld, Bowie Bonds, BowieNet,” Keller says Rolling stone in an email. “He also made digital art himself and what excited me so much was the idea of ​​making people aware of all these things that they probably don’t think about or know about when they think of Bowie, and for me it really became about cementing his legacy on the blockchain, and create beautiful, meaningful art. Having our ‘why?’ was so important, and really guided every part of this process.”

When it came to selecting artists for the project, Keller says he and his partner, filmmaker Joaquin Acrich, drew inspiration from the kind of art Bowie was drawn to, as well as his efforts to support up-and-coming and lesser-known artists. The only other rule they gave themselves, Keller notes, is that the artists had to “have some sort of personal connection, which, given that we’re talking about David Bowie, isn’t really that difficult.” The nine they settled on are Nadya Tolokonnikova from Pussy Riot, Fewocious, Jake, Defaced, Osinachi, Young and Slick, Lirona, Glam Beckett and Jonathan Wolfe.

To make the pieces even more special, the artists were all allowed to include some “artifacts” pulled straight from the Bowie archives. “The archive is just amazing and so wildly extensive that we were able to offer everything from paintings Bowie made to handwritten notes, stage or costume design sketches that the artists could include as part of their palates,” says Keller. “Some just used it for inspiration, and some actually incorporated digitized versions of the pieces from the archives into their work.”

Keller also teases some of the NFTs, adding, “JAKE worked on one of Bowie’s artworks from his D-head series. Lirona took Bowie’s autograph and handwriting samples we gave her to print 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 up for auction, and the buyer will also get an incredible, massive sculpture Fewocious has created that actually wears one of Bowie’s suits from the archives.”