This November, Sotheby’s New York is delighted to present the fourth edition of Natively Digital, celebrating what became recognized as the blue-chip collectibles and the most sought after PFPs. Sotheby's will showcase pieces from iconic collections including the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CLONE X - X TAKASHI MURAKAMI and the final Let's Walk by Deekay. Together, these collections have become leading symbols of the NFT market, transcending art and culture online. This series, aptly titled 'Relics,' focuses on work from collections widely known in the Digital Art space for their quality, aesthetic, and value. The online auction will open for bidding on Sothebys.com at 2pm on November 2nd through November 9th.
Deekay Kwon, born in 1989, is a South Korean animator who lives and works in San Francisco. Before gaining recognition as a leading digital artist, Deekay was a prominent motion designer for some of the world’s leading tech companies including Apple and Google. Deekay discovered NFTs in 2021 and started gaining widespread popularity in the CryptoArt space through strong support from very high-profile collectors such as Cozomo de’ Medici and Mondoir. Deekay is among the most sought after artists in the digital and NFT space. His works achieved records when he sold Life and Death for $1,000,000 in April 2022 to Cozomo de’ Medici. Deekay's main project is centered around his LetsWalk series. The series will be completed by the present work offered at Sotheby’s. This grand final work is a celebration and mise en abyme of the whole Let’s Walk series and the 100 works that compose it. DeeKay started the LetsWalk project in March 2021, and the goal was to make 100 characters walking. He completed 100 walks in October 2022, which took more than 550 days. And now he has combined all 100 walks into one frame where they all co-exist in his world. A lot of the early Walks are inspired by his fondest childhood memories, and as he continues to create he finds inspiration in his everyday life. In conjunction with the final release of the collection, Sotheby’s will be auctioning off the last moment, a 1 of 1 that celebrates the entirety of the collection and as a grand final of this iconic series.
Yuga Labs is the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club. BAYC is a phenomenon that has transformed the way the world sees digital art and NFTs. They are perhaps the most iconic NFT project to date, and one that is hugely responsible for the rise in popularity of the entire scene. BAYC is a digital member’s club created by Yuga Labs and consists of 10,000 cartoon apes, each one unique and varying in rarity. Born out of crypto culture, they spearheaded the member’s club and digital collectibles trends as more and more people grew affectionate to these apes and what they represent. For this reason, we see them as so much more than just an ape, they are art. Bored Ape Yacht Club has generated hundreds of millions in total market volume since its debut in April 2021 across the original BAYC collectibles as well as its Bored Ape Kennel Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collectibles. Notable owners include musician Jermaine Dupri, sports star Stephen Curry, and consumer brand AriZona Iced Tea. Together with CryptoPunks, BAYC represents a major trend where NFT art is community driven, as buyers use their NFTs as social media avatars and access-only membership passes. Coming from collector and notable ape holder PrepsTothePros, this online auction will mark first time that Apes #8331, #7724, #1598, and #7610 have been made available since they were minted them 18 months ago. Ape #8636 was minted by the well known collector Pranksy, at which point it exchanged hands and was collected by the present owner. Prepstothepros minted over 100 Bored Apes, and has continued to hold one of the most significant collections to date, including the #1 ranked Ape based on rarity.
CLONE X - X TAKASHI MURAKAMI is a collection of 20,000 digital avatars by creative design agency RTFKT in collaboration with world renown contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. Since its release in November 2021, CLONE X is one of the most high-end projects in the NFT, which incorporates Murakami’s iconic style with RTFKT’s 3D visual style. The team goes further, describing that "in this advanced civilization, humans no longer reside in an organic form but are instead represented by their digital CloneX avatars. This groundbreaking technology has revolutionized Homo sapiens's ability to self-express themselves through customizable avatar identities. This development also allows Clones to travel across galaxies and expand our civilization into new galaxies and simulations." In May 2022, Gagosian Gallery presented a Murakami exhibition including CloneX, where works were displayed physically and digitally at Gagosian. It was here we saw the 3D CloneX avatars come to life as full-scale figurative sculptures-- the intersection of Contemporary art and the metaverse. Murakami explains: “When I work on a creative production, I make no distinction between digital and analog. I’m always working in the context of contemporary art, and that context is all about whether I can be involved in events that manage to trigger a cognitive revolution.” The features of each avatar determine their rarity, and for this reason CloneX #8871 is one of the 15 rarest in the entire collection. Owned by an anonymous collector, it is the only one with a combination of Gold Samurai helmet, IRI Tech Jacket, and GRN UNDRWRLD, making it one of the most sought after pieces.
