FOND DU LAC – An artist in the global spotlight for his recent sale of a $69.3 million piece of digital artwork was born and raised in North Fond du Lac.
Mike Winklemann became a household name last week after his digital collage titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days,” made history in an unprecedented sale of digital artwork at Christie’s auction house in London.
Winklemann, 39, a graphic designer in South Carolina, is the son of Peter Winklemann of North Fond du Lac, an electrical engineer, and Dottie Winklemann, the former long-time director of the Fond du Lac Senior Center.
The digital artwork — which is a collage of 5,000 images created by the artist over a period of as many days in his life — represents a type of recently-popularized digital art called Nonfungible Token or NFT, which is built on the blockchain framework.
Christie’s said the sale of Winklemann’s piece marks the first time a major auction house has offered a digital-only work or art with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.
Winklemann, who goes by the trade name “Beeple” or “Beeple Crap” is famous worldwide for creating comical, fantasy works of political and social commentary while using pop figures as references and depictions of iconic personalities like Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kim Jung Un, Jeff Bezos and many others.
He responded to the news of the sale with an expletive on Twitter.
“Artists have been using hardware and software to create artwork and distribute it on the internet for the last 20-plus years but there was never a real way to truly own and collect it,” the artist said in a statement released by Christie’s. “With NFT’s that has now changed. I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the next chapter in art history, digital art.”
Christie’s said the artwork fetched the highest price in an online-only auction and the highest price for any winning bid placed online.
Winkelmann first began the project in May 2007, posting a small sketch of his Uncle Mike, on his website and continued adding one piece a day for the next 13 years, until his piece contained 5,000 images. He is currently on his 14th round of “Everydays,” he said.
Recurring themes found in the artist’s work include society’s obsession with and fear of technology; the desire for and resentment of wealth; and America’s recent political turbulence.
“I almost look at it now as though I’m a political cartoonist,” Beeple told Christie’s. “Except instead of doing sketches, I’m using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real time.”
Christie’s did not identify the buyer of the artwork.
Winklemann’s work can be found at beeple-crap.com/ and includes his Everydays, along with short films and VJ Loops, which is a broad designation for real time visual performances.
His work has been featured on concert visuals for celebrities like Justin Bieber, One Direction, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Zedd, deadmau5, and many more. His art has also been on display at halftime shows at two Super Bowls
The North Fond du Lac native graduated in 2003 from Purdue with a degree in computer science, according to Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide. He chose the name “Beeple,” after a toy from the 1980s whose nose lit up in response to light and sound.
Others have also joined the craze for NFTs. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey put his first ever tweet — “just setting up my twttr” — up for online auction as an NFT, with bids reaching as high as $2.5 million, and he promised to donate the proceeds to charity, according to the Associated Press.
Rock band Kings of Leon is offering a version of their latest album with the tokens that come with extras. A blockchain company also bought a piece of work by British artist Banksy, burned it and then put a digital version on sale through a non-fungible token. The National Basketball Association is teaming up in a venture to sell virtual sports cards backed by the tokens, and the Associated Press is offering NFT digital artwork — a depiction of the U.S. presidential election’s electoral college map as viewed from space.
Winklemann and his wife Jen, a school teacher, have two children.
Contact Sharon Roznik at 920-907-7936 or sroznik@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/reporterroz/
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