Mike "Beeple" Winkleman's EVERYDAYS project, wherein he has created a digital artwork or image every day for over 5000 days, has sold the first 5000 images at auction via Christie's. The auction for the non-fungible token shows a 'price realised' of $69,346,250 USD.
In May 2007, the digital artist known as Beeple set out to create and post a new work of art online every day. He hasn't missed a day since, creating a new digital picture every day for 5,000 days straight. Individually known as EVERYDAYS, collectively, the pieces form the core of EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, one of the most unique bodies of work to emerge in the history of digital art.
Consumers of internet culture will already be familiar with the prolific digital output of graphic designer and motion artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple. The South Carolina-based artist's visionary, and often irreverent, digital pictures launched his meteoric rise to the top of the digital art world. He's attracted 1.8 million followers on Instagram and high-profile collaborations with global brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Nike, as well as performing artists from Katy Perry to Childish Gambino.
In EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, the artist has stitched together recurring themes and color schemes to create an aesthetic whole. Organized in loose chronological order, zooming in on individual pieces reveals abstract, fantastical, grotesque, and absurd pictures, alongside current events and deeply personal moments. Society's obsession with and fear of technology; the desire for and resentment of wealth; and America's recent political turbulence appear frequently throughout the work.
The notable difference between the pictures from Day 1 (1 May 2007) and Day 5,000 (7 January 2021) reveals Beeple's immense evolution as an artist. At the project's inception, EVERYDAYS consisted of basic drawings. Once Beeple started working in 3D, they took on abstract themes, color, form and repetition. In the last five years, however, his digital pictures have became increasingly timely, often reacting to current events.
"I almost look at it now like I'm a political cartoonist," Beeple explains. "Except instead of doing sketches, I'm using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real-time."
Image: Screengrab via Christie's
