Sotheby’s has paused its latest NFT auction after an artist withdrew his work in protest against the all-male series
Auctions
Of the 21 glitch artists curated by Sotheby’s, not a single one identified as a woman.
The sale was supposed to be the latest lucrative installment of Sotheby’s NFT outgrowth, Natively Digital, instead drawing renewed attention to the lack of inclusion in the crypto-art space.
The “Natively Digital: Glitch-ism” sale had brought together work from leading glitch artists, whose work enjoys the aesthetics of distortion and pixelation, and was two days into a bidding period scheduled to run 24-31. March. Subsequently, artist Patrick Amadon withdrew his work, citing the sale’s lack of female-identifying artists. Within hours, the auction house had put “Glitch-ism” on hold, promising to rethink and relaunch.
For Amadon, the crisis of conscience came after being tagged in a tweet by artist Oona who questioned how a landmark glitch show could have been curated by a major auction house without including a single female artist. In fact, the backlash to the men-only auction had been online for some time, but largely out of the public spotlight.
XCOPY, Loading new conflict… Redux 6 (2018), one of the works in “Glitch-ism”, which also included pieces by JakNFT, jakethedegen, Luis Ponce and neurocolor. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
However, the complaints go far beyond the lack of diversity in sales. In one instance, Dawnia Darkstone, a prominent glitch artist, had been asked to provide analysis of the glitch art scene by the show’s curator Davis Brown, but was denied compensation and inclusion in the show. In another, Rosa Menkman, a Dutch art theorist and faux artist, had work used, without permission, in the show’s promotional material. Needless to say, they were not asked to contribute work for the sale.
“The male-only glitch art fair promoted by Sotheby’s is yet another example of the existing inequality in the art world,” Oona told Artnet News. “Non-male artwork is consistently undervalued and underrepresented. If we don’t acknowledge and address this problem, it will only continue to worsen.”
In response to the pressure generated by Oona and other artists such as Stellabelle and Darkstone, Sotheby’s has promised to “correct the imbalance of representation in the sale, and will restart with a fairer and more diverse group of artists at a later date.” Part of this effort will include an exhibition and panel event at NFT.NYC, which runs from the 12th-14th. April, centered on underrepresented communities of glitch artists.
Although Amadon appreciated Sotheby’s quick response and believes the oversight was a “real mistake”, he noted that none of the show’s other artists had followed his lead and stressed the importance of fair representation at the nascent stage of the sector’s development.
“Often price becomes the signaling factor, but it is not an honest assessment of quality or importance,” Amadon told Artnet News. “[This] perpetuates the cycle of enriching artists and collectors with privilege and opportunity. Platforms need to do a better job of identifying this and take more responsibility.”
The key to creating change, Oona noted, is to charge higher prices for non-male artists. “For far too long, the link between economic value and artistic merit has been inextricably linked to our cultural understanding of art,” Ooma said. “This isn’t about having all-female shows or tokenism. It’s about achieving real equality in pay and vision. It’s time for non-male artists to be given an equal platform to showcase their talents.”
In the revised “Glitch-ism” sale, Amadon hopes to see works by the likes of Empress Trash, Stella Particula, Ina Vare, Epic Thundercat, Dawnia Darkstone, Iteration and wondermundo.
For Amadon, it is the second case in a few weeks that he has drawn attention to the social component of his artistic practice. During Hong Kong Art Week, his moving images worked No rebels was removed from the giant LED poster in the Causeway Bay shopping district after it was revealed that the piece flashed the names of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.
Sotheby’s declined to specify a date for the relaunch of “Glitch-ism”.
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