K-pop Group Aespa Launches NFT Collection Featuring Artist Blake Kathryn – The Hollywood Reporter

Aespa, the four-member K-pop group from SM Entertainment, is launching an NFT collection with Web3 artist Blake Kathryn that will give fans access to exclusive content and a rare meet-and-greet with the group in Seoul.

From 13 October at 14.00 PT until 21 October at 08.00 PT, NFTs from the assembly – called oh girls — will be auctioned on Sotheby’s digital marketplace for NFTs. The entire collection will fall into three parts, with each part available for a 48-hour period during the week-long auction.

The first part in the series will be an open edition, which means that NFT can be minted an unlimited number of times. The NFT will act as an access key for holders and will come with one additional digital artwork.

The second part, “Alter”, will include a set of 32 special and limited NFTs from each of the Aespa group members (Karina, Giselle, Winter and NingNing). The digital artworks come with a personal recording from each member discussing the artwork. The first edition of each of the altars goes to the highest bidder and comes with a signed autograph print from the artist and the four Aespa members.

The last and most rare work in Oh girls The NFT collection will be called “Dreamspace”. The work is a single edition that is intended to reflect the virtual environment for each Aespa member. “Dreamscape” holders will receive a video shoot from Aespa and Kathryn, a virtual meet-and-greet with Kathryn, and — most importantly — an all-expenses-paid trip to Seoul to meet the K-pop group and attend one of their concerts.

“We love connecting with our fans in new ways that embrace technology, and this new NFT collection is really cool, cute and groundbreaking,” Aespa said in a joint statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Blake Kathryn is an amazing artist and we enjoyed the process of collaborating with her to create this collection.”

The K-pop group first debuted in 2020 with the single “Black Mamba” and performed earlier this year at Coachella. The group’s name, often stylized in lowercase letters, is a portmanteau of “avatar”, “experience” and “aspect”, and each member has their own accompanying digital avatar.

The Oh girls the collection will be exhibited at Sotheby’s galleries in New York and Hong Kong, and the collaboration between Aespa and Kathryn was facilitated by brand agencies Connecting Dotts and INVNT.ATOM.

“It was a pleasure to collaborate with aespa on this first-of-its-kind NFT collection,” said Kathryn, who has previously worked with Lil Nas X, Paris Hilton and Jimmy Choo. “This release is an authentic reflection of Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning and captures the unique essence and qualities of each of these powerful women. My hope is that it reflects female artists who are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and blurring the boundaries between real and virtual to create a new kind of fandom.”