| Kevin Abosch | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 1969 (age 54–55) |
| Known for | Conceptual Art,AI art Photography, Installation art, NFTs and generative art |
Kevin Abosch (/ˈeɪbɒʃ/ AY-bosh; born 1969) is an Irish conceptual artist and pioneer in cryptoart known for his works in photography, blockchain, sculpture, installation, AI and film. Abosch's work addresses the nature of identity, value and human currency and has been exhibited throughout the world, often in civic spaces, including The Hermitage Museum, The National Gallery of Ireland, The National Museum of China, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, The Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, ZKM, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and Dublin Airport.
Selected works and projects
Utopian Propagation
On 28 October 2016 Abosch installed a work entitled "Impossible Promises" consisting of 100 painted oil barrels in the Millennium Park at the Bogotá Museum of Modern Art
Potato #345
In 2015, Abosch's photographic work of a potato, "Potato #345" was reportedly sold to an unnamed businessman in Europe for a €1,000,000,. The photo was taken in 2010 and is one of three versions of the print in existence.
I AM A COIN
In January 2018 Abosch created 10,000,000 virtual artworks consisting of crypto-tokens on the Ethereum Blockchain.
Forever Rose
On 14 February 2018 Abosch's virtual artwork "Forever Rose", consisting of a single ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, sold to a group of ten art collectors for a record-breaking USD$1 million.
Yellow Lambo
The artwork is composed of 42 inline alphanumerics in yellow neon representing the blockchain contract address for a crypto token called YLAMBO, which Abosch also created. Abosch named the artwork after the hashtag #lambo, which cryptocurrency enthusiasts often use in online forums. On 26 April 2018, at the "If So, What?" art fair in San Francisco, California, Abosch's sculpture entitled "Yellow Lambo" was sold to former Skype COO Michael Jackson for US$400,000, more than the base price of a 2018 Lamborghini Aventador motor car.
PRICELESS
A collaboration between Abosch and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei primarily made up of two standard ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, called PRICELESS (PRCLS is its symbol). One of these tokens is forever unavailable to anyone, but the other is meant for distribution and is divisible up to 18 decimal places, meaning it can be given away one quintillionth at a time. A nominal amount of the distributable token was “burned” (put into digital wallets with the keys thrown away), and these wallet addresses were printed on paper and sold to art buyers in a series of 12 physical works. Each wallet address alphanumeric is a proxy for a shared moment between Abosch and Ai.
1111 series
The series, described as the first AI and cryptographic NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) art project of this scale, comprises 1,111 unique generative artworks minted on OpenSea starting March 23, 2021, by Kevin Abosch. The works feature automated hash data represented as figurative NFTs. As of May 2024, the series includes only 999 pieces, with 112 NFTs having been 'burnt' by the artist—sent to the ETH burn address, rendering them unavailable for sale.
In April 2021, Abosch announced his intention to launch a satellite to study climate change and to create and distribute NFTs to the owners of 1111s. These NFTs are to be airdropped directly into the owners' wallets. As of May 2024, the launch date for the satellite remains pending.
National Gallery of Ireland
In December 2013 the National Gallery of Ireland acquired three photographic portraits by Abosch for inclusion in the permanent National Portrait Collection. The portraits are of Bob Geldof, Olwen Fouéré and Brian O'Driscoll.
Animoca Brands
Kevin Abosch is creative director for Animoca Brands.
References
- "DLD Interview with Kevin Abosch". YouTube. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
- Are NFT's the next Tulip Bubble?
- "Exhibition: Innovation As A Method".
- "Kevin Abosch - National Gallery of Ireland". National Gallery of Ireland.
- "Studio Kevin Abosch". www.kevinabosch.com. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
- "Irish Museum of Modern Art Past Exhibitions". IMMA/Ifrish Museum of Modern Art.
- "Art Magazin Kevin Abosch". artmagazin.rs.
- "ZKM site".
- "Jeu de Paume - Le Supermarché des images" (PDF).
- "The Faces That Make Up Modern Ireland". The Independent.
- "PROPAGACIÓN UTÓPICA - KEVIN ABOSCH". Museo de Arte Moderno Bogotá.
- "The Artist Who Became a Bitcoin". Forbes.
- Haigney, Sophie (5 June 2018). "When Crypto Meets Conceptual Art, Things Get Weird". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- Michael, Zhang (21 January 2016). "This Photo of a Potato Sold for Over $1,000,000". PetaPixel. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
- "Artist turns his blood into cryptocurrency". CNN. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- CNN article - Crypto-artwork of a rose sells for $1 million
- "When Crypto Meets Conceptual Art, Things Get Weird - New York Times". Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- "If So What is now XVERSO". If So What is now XVERSO. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
- Bernard, Zoë. "The artist who once sold a photo of a potato for $1 million just sold a cryptocurrency-inspired artwork called 'YELLOW LAMBO' for more than the price of an actual Lamborghini". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- "Artists Ai Weiwei and Kevin Abosch Are Using the Blockchain to Make Us Question What's 'PRICELESS'". Motherboard. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- "PRICELESS by Kevin Abosch & Ai Weiwei". PRICELESS by Kevin Abosch & Ai Weiwei. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- "Ai Weiwei macht nun Kunst auf der Blockchain". WIRED (in German). Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- "1111 by Kevin Abosch". OpenSea. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
- "1111 Kosmos Project". Retrieved 5 May 2024.
- National Gallery of Ireland Press release Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine
- "HotCopper | ASX Share Prices, Stock Market & Share Trading Forum". HotCopper. Retrieved 31 March 2020.