NFT (non-fungible tokens) fans are well aware of the work of digital artist FEWOCiOUS, also known to fans as Fewo, so they may be happy to hear that the 18-year-old trans artist has just been snapped up by Christie's.
Five of his NFT works of art, along with 5 physical paintings and never-before-seen drawings, will be offered at an online auction from 23 to 30 June to celebrate Pride month.
Sold under the title "Hello, I'm Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life", the works tell about his personal experiences as a young, transgender artist between the ages of 14 and 18, one lot for each year of his life.
The works recount his personal journey from life in Las Vegas to Seattle, his transition from Victoria to Victor (going from "It Hurts to Hide" and "When a Child Feels Lost" to the triumphant "I Taught Myself How To Fly") and the developments he went through in his art practice.
Growing up in Las Vegas, FEWOCiOUS - real name Victor Langlois - first started making art aged 13, as a refuge and escape from his unsupportive and abusive family.
Langlois showed an artistic side from a very young age: at first he started developing and selling Minecraft thumbnail images, then he received commissions from kids in school. He taught himself how to use programmes, make videos and develop digital art and eventually started selling NFTs on the platform SuperRare where his works reached an average 5 ether ($7,320) per sale.
When Christie’s sold Beeple's NFT in March for $69,346,250 , FEWOCiOUS sold more than $4 million worth of NFTs with two drops on leading platform Nifty Gateway - one in partnership with singer, songwriter and producer Two Feet and the other in a sneaker collaboration with RTFKT Studios that offered physical shoes to purchasers of their digital counterpart and that, promoted on Snapchat, reached at the end of February over $3.1 million USD in just seven minutes.
Each Christie's FEWOCiOUS lot includes a video artwork in digital form sold as an NFT, a set of doodles, drawings and journal entries from the corresponding year in both physical and NFT form (so 14 for year 14, 15 for year 15, and so on), and a physical-only painting.
Art-wise FEWOCiOUS' works are bold and bright assemblages of shades and shapes, visionary moments in which the colours represent the way he feels and the exuberance of youth, with characters that seem to echo in some ways the fantasies of Daniel Johnston fused with graffiti art and with Basquiat's unconventional child-like style.
Seeing him rise as one of the hottest young stars of a new digital art movement driven by NFT innovation is a pleasure and an inspiration for all of us: FEWOCiOUS shows each and everyone of us, but especially to trans kids who may be feeling frustrated and isolated, that we can all make it against adversities if we sit down and work hard.
You can bet we will soon see FEWOCiOUS' works on the fashion runways: a menswear collection with Dior would definitely be a great option after Dior's Kenny Scharf collaboration.
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