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his December, Sotheby’s New York is delighted to present Natively Digital Relics II. The second edition of Relics will offer the first Keith Haring NFT in collaboration with The CityKids Foundation, a 1/1 work from digital artist OSF, and rare selections from prominent PFP collections Chimpers and Invisible Friends. The online auction will open for bidding on Sothebys.com at 10am on December 15.
Ovie Faruq, more commonly known as "OSF", is a former Barclays trader turned digital artist. His work utilises vibrant colours, flashing lights and glitch-like animations to portray every-day occurrences. Depicting city nightlife is a common theme across his artwork, which often features translucent skull-inspired characters known as "rektguys", signifying the masochistic crypto culture of losing money, or "getting rekt". This distinct style is well recognized across his work, from his 1 of 1s and his limited editions, to his generative PFP collection titled rektguy. In his Sotheby's auction debut, OSF describes that Carnaby Street is an "alternate reality" take on London's popular shopping street in the Soho district. A street that is often crowded with tourists and Londoners alike, this piece captures a rare moment of eerie tranquility that can only be found in the early hours of the day.
Sotheby’s is pleased to present the first official NFT from the Keith Haring portfolio, which is a collaborative work with the NYC-based non-profit organization, The CityKids Foundation. In 1986, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, CityKids organized a tribute collaboration with Keith Haring and over 1000 teenage “city kids” from all 5 boroughs of New York City. Haring painted a monumental 90’ high x 30’ outline of the Statue of Liberty on a massive sailcloth in his hallmark minimalist illustrative style, and 1000 CityKids added their words on what Liberty meant to them directly to the canvas. During the creative process, it was noted by one of the CityKids that Haring’s interpretation of Lady Liberty’s torch-bearing arm was crooked, to which he responded, “No, it’s not crooked, it’s wobbly, because Liberty is wobbly.” CityKids has retained ownership of the physical masterpiece ever since, and in 2020, both to preserve the work and to generate new digital experiences around it, CityKids digitized the work, turning a warehouse in Brooklyn NY into a giant physical scanner, which resulted in a 6Gb photo file at life-sized dimensions. That single file has now been divided into 385 1-of-1 pieces, with the top 384 smaller pieces turned into a compassable puzzle, and the bottom 1-of-1 larger piece featuring Haring’s signature alongside his animated figures available here for the first time at Sothebys.com. Keith Haring + CityKids "Speak on Liberty”, has been exhibited around the world, from its origins in NYC’s Javits Center to stops at Rock The Vote, the NFL’s 2002 Super Bowl in New Orleans, where it rose behind Paul McCartney as he performed at the pre-show event, as well as in Paris, Philadelphia, and back again to NYC’s Hudson Yards. More recently in 2022, it has been exhibited at the HQ of NFT.NYC week in the Marriott Marquis Times Square and during Art Week on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Haring’s friendship with the CityKids organization spanned five years and involved five of collaborative works including the creation of the CITYKIDS logo, a logo still used to represent the foundation to this day.
Keith Haring (1958 - 1990) was an American neo-pop and graffiti artist and is one of the most iconic names from the 1980's New York street culture scene. He devoted much of his time to public works, which often carried social messages and themes of love, death, war and social harmony. Haring’s signature images included dancing figures, a radiant baby, a barking dog, a flying saucer, large hearts, and figures with televisions for heads. His art is exhibited worldwide, and many of his works are owned by prestigious museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France.
For over 38 years, The CityKids Foundation, a NY 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has pioneered innovative, cutting-edge, diverse youth development programs. Founded by Laurie Meadoff, CityKids has inspired and empowered thousands of young people to turn their pain into purpose and become community leaders and motivated agents of social change through safe spaces, arts training, and multicultural bridge-building programs.
Chimpers is an NFT adventure story filled with beautiful art and rich lore by the iconic pixel artist Timpers consisting of 100 unique, 1/1 Genesis characters and 5,555 Generative characters. Since launching in May 2022, Chimpers has received wide acclaim for its vibrant and eye-catching style. While Chimpers, has continued to impress and thrive during the past 6 months with total sales in excess of 12,000 ETH, the team has established a track record of building engaging experiences for their community through artwork, lore and adventure stories that bring the characters to life!
Timpers joined the NFT space in February 2021 and has carved out a successful niche with his unique and vibrant pixel art style. His work was quickly noticed throughout the community and led to collaborations with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, RTFKT, as well as becoming one of the four founding artists for the iconic Nouns project. Timpers has always had a love for creating characters and a collection was always a goal, but first he wanted to forge a community from the ground up. This was realized through the Boring Ape Chronicles, an artwork series that depicted Bored Apes on an epic adventure for the sacred Diamond Fleece. For more than 12 months he built the art and lore alongside his team, until they ventured through the portal in the final episode, which would take them to a new world, the Chimpverse!
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Chimpers has continued to receive glowing reviews and has maintained popularity within the community following its launch, with Chimpers NFTs have continued to fall into the hands of many of the strongest collectors in the space, such as mooncat2878, 9gag's CEO Ray Chan, OGDfarmer and mondoir. With the creation of the DOJO, the spiritual home of the Chimpers world, holders could stake their NFT and train under the guidance of the wise sensei Master Chimpo. In just a few months there are already over 4,400 Chimpers staked out of a total 5,555 as of today, demonstrating the commitment to the project by the community.
Chimpers recently announced a long term partnership with Paramount to bring the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to life in the NFT world. Paramount became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only, and now they are taking the first steps to collaborate with amazing IPs in the web 3 space, bringing Chimpers along with them.
A collection of 5,000 unique animated characters, Invisible Friends has attracted a zealous reception from the public since the project's launch in February 2022. Drawn and animated by Markus Magnusson, the project's success has also brought a series of fashion merchandise collaborations such as Kith Friends, which debuted looks from Kith’s Summer 2022 collections, merging the boundaries between wearable and collectible fashion in the language.
