Inked Magazine and London Reese will launch a unique NFT experience under the guidance of Metaverse and web3 consultancy Burrata. Inked wants to explore the NFT Metaverse as the best tattoo lifestyle brand in the world. When you think about it, tattoos are the original NFT. All tattoos are a work of art, and even if they are pulled from the same flash, the two tattoos will not be the same.
Bitski will host a Golden Ticket Auction starting at noon PST on December 16th and running until noon PST on December 21st.
The winner of the Golden Ticket Auction will receive:
- Unique NFT dead icon portrait by London Reese
- 8-hour tattoo session with Reese at Inked NYC, Inked’s headquarters in New York City
- A video of Reese creating an original portrait and destroying it with fire!
Reese chose the iconic artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as the subject of the portrait. Basquiat turned the world of art upside down in the 1980s and provided Reese with a constant source of inspiration.
In addition to the Golden Ticket Auction, there are also five additional “dead icon” NFT open edition sales drawn by Reese. There will be 100 runs, each sold for $ 100.
In the interview below, we talked about why Reese wanted to participate in the exciting NFT scene. Check out the auctions and marketplaces here.
Why are you excited to enter the world of NFTs?
I am excited to be involved in this new art revolution. Technology, contemporary culture and art all blend in ways never before, and I love it. For me, art is always against the rules, making a difference, and marking. The NFT landscape uses my art to expand my ability to do more exciting things and take more risks. There are no rules and the possibilities are endless. That is what excites me most.
Is there a correlation between tattoos and NFTs?
There are many similarities between tattoos and NFTs. So I think I’m very interested in this modern digital art landscape. All tattoos are a type. The person who wears it is as unique as the art itself. Collecting truly 1/1 NFTs is the same as collecting physical tattoo work. I think this is incredibly cool and extraordinary.
Tell us a little bit about the Dead Icons series, especially Basquiat’s portraits on this project.
I started the Dead Icons series in the early months of the Covid-19 Quarantine. I have always been intrigued by iconography and fascinated by the composition of fame. It is a by-product of the infamy. Thanks to the quarantine, it took much longer to create and I wanted to explore the curiosity of the icon. I decided to create a series of culturally iconic figures and post the entire process on social media. It soon became apparent that others were interested in what I was working on, and they started making requests to me and asking me to create custom icons for them. It was like my tattoo process. Incorporate client ideas and create something unique just for them. I made dozens of original mixed media illustrations and paintings and sold them to people all over the world. It was great, and I am forever grateful to the collectors and fans for helping to invigorate the experience. As soon as the world began to open up, I was able to return to my normal tattoo workflow. I wanted to further develop the Dead Icons series into skin and so on. I was bothered by it. I started the Dead Icons tattoo series but knew it wouldn’t end there. Rumors have spread that NFTs have been used to create digital art and have become legitimate products. This put me on the floor. I was fascinated by the concept and found that I needed to bridge the gap between the Dead Icons series and this new world of digital art. In this way, the DEADICONS project was born. I had to do something unique with it. I knew that Basquiat would be the subject because I loved his punk rock spirit and original style. He broke all the rules, paved the way for himself and still became his icon. His prolific work is as much influenced by graffiti art as my artwork is so much influenced by tattoo art. Both our environment and our interests have a direct impact on the art we create. I feel a connection with the aesthetics of his work. Tattoos are technical. It all makes sense to honor him with this new digital venture, as I’ve found that I’m exploring a more abstract approach with a lot of my own personal artwork. Basquiat’s work is symbolic. He is symbolic. His work is full of symbolic symbols. He belongs to 27 clubs and died tragically in an art studio. His art is worth millions and is loved by millions of people. He was absolutely a legend that I wanted to pay homage to this series. He is a true icon and the perfect subject of this special series of art. To honor his work, I decided to create my art in a more traditional way than digitally. I used a variety of paper and canvas, graphite, oil and acrylic paints, spray paints, and charcoal to attach them to the birch board of the cradle. Basquiat’s own work and some of his direct quotations influenced many mixed media layers in my final work. I wanted to create a calm and chaotic feeling in my work.
I was told that I would burn a portrait when it was completed, but what do you think it would be like to be destroyed?
It turns out that it is not enough to create a work of art that honors this legend. I felt I had to do something special. I knew I had to destroy it. So I made a monolith, built it in the middle of the desert of Southern California, hung my art on it, and sacrificed it to the gods. It was exciting and nervous because I had only one shot to do it right. It was sad to destroy what I spent all the time, but it became part of the artwork and part of the experience. I felt like I had to do it. I wanted to make something as symbolic as the subject myself, but firing it and sending it to the afterlife seemed like the only way to do it properly. Inspired by legendary works, the ever-changing world of art and the technological milestones of human beings, I’m excited to do something unique.
The auction will end in just a few days, so hurry up. Here’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience / bid for NFTs!
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