Glitch artist withdraws from Sotheby’s NFT auction due to lack of female artists

An artist featured by renowned auction house Sotheby’s said Saturday he would withdraw his art from an NFT sale currently underway, citing a lack of representation of female-identifying artists.

Patrick Amadon, whose work revolves around the visual style known as “glitch art,” said Sotheby’s “Natively Digital: Glitch-ism” should have been more inclusive.

“While I think it was a genuine oversight and the team means well, the lack of representation is a serious issue and we need to address this in our space,” he said on Twitter. “Female identifying artists have played a huge role in the glitch movement.”

Sotheby’s “Glitch-ism” sale began Friday as a first-of-its-kind, online auction focusing on the genre of glitch art, composed of NFTs from 21 artists. The artworks’ media range from still images in the form of JPEGs to MP4s and GIFs that quiver and distort with the usual characteristics of computer glitches.

The sale follows Sotheby’s “Oddly Satisfying” auction – which also fell under “Natively Digital” umbrella – featuring 66 NFT pieces and artwork from iconic NFT artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann.

Although the ownership of each piece is represented by an NFT, Sotheby’s acknowledged on its website that the genre of glitch art extends far beyond just the cryptocurrency and Web3 space, with roots that predate digital assets.

“Whether the work is a reference to the state of cryptocurrency or a broader social commentary, this glitch aesthetic has had a deep and profound impact on the formation of the digital art world as a whole,” Sotheby’s writes. website states.

Amadon said on Twitter that the piece’s visual flourishes were created by manipulating code in a well-known Microsoft application.

The piece of the artworks that Amadon intends to pick up from the Sotheby’s sale is titled “STATIC GLITCH 2013.” At the time of this writing, the piece is still available and had secured 21 bids, the latest offering equaling $8,500.

Sotheby’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Decrypt.

Stressing the importance of representation and inclusion, Amadon signaled that his decision was intended to influence how artists would be showcased in the future more broadly — not limited to Sotheby’s “Glitch-ism” sale.

“It’s critical that we build this movement right,” he said. “Everything we do now not only affects our community today, it will affect thousands upon thousands of future artists who inherit what we have left them.”

Another Amadon piece had just landed at the intersection of art and social movements. His artwork titled “No Rioters” was removed from a billboard in Hong Kong earlier this month, as reported by Associated Press.

The play was meant to show solidarity with pro-democracy protesters who took to the city’s streets in 2019, subliminally flickering the names of activists arrested during the movement along with details of their prison sentences.

“By proving that one person can make change happen, Patrick Amadon steps up at a time when he could really leverage his success to make money after his Hong Kong incident happened,” he wrote. With glitch artist Liz on Twitter. “Instead, he uses his newfound fame to publicly protest the lack of representation in the arts. Great example.”