Benzinga | Jan 6, 2022 09:08AM EST

Graham Holding's Leaf Group Reports Highlights Its Saatchi Art Has Opened Reservations For 'The Other Avatars' Non-Fungible Token Collection

Leading online art gallery Saatchi Art announces reservations for its first-ever NFT (Non-Fungible Token) project, 'The Other Avatars,' which will open to the public on January 9, 2022. The collection will feature over 2,000 non-generative art avatars, each unique and designed by emerging artists from across the globe. Inspired by the legacy of Vincent van Gogh and the all-too-common experience of creative thinkers whose visionary approaches turn out to be ahead of their time, 'The Other Avatars' is Saatchi Art's first foray into NFTs.



Over 150 artists have been hand-selected by Saatchi Art's world-class curation team from over 35 countries, including Ghana, Croatia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each artist will create 10-20 unique avatar artworks, many of which are digital creations developed from physical artworks. 'The Other Avatars' artists are working in mediums from digital media and collage to photography, oil painting, and beyond. Saatchi Art's commitment to empowering artists and its innovative approach to the NFT space has created a platform for artists to break into this fast-growing channel -- over 90% of participating artists for this drop are new to the NFT market and 50% of participating artists self-identify as women.

Avatars are images of a person or character, usually from the shoulders up, that feature an array of traits. For this project, there are 11 predefined traits that artists will use to create each of their Van Gogh-inspired avatars. Beyond being one-of-a-kind artworks by virtue of each artist's unique style and approach, every avatar will also have the name of the artist who created it as a trait. Rarity of the traits will be determined by the artists' own selections once all works are completed.

"As one of the first online art galleries, Saatchi Art has leveraged the power of technology to disrupt the traditional art market for over a decade," said Sean Moriarty, CEO of Leaf Group. "At Leaf Group, our brands are committed to empowering our communities of artists, creators and consumers, and the development of this highly unique NFT collection is a testament to Saatchi Art's mission of democratizing the art space, while leaning into technological advancements."

The stylistically-varied avatars will live on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-721 tokens and the underlying artwork will be hosted on IPFS (Interplanetary File System). Interested collectors can participate in the live sale of this collection by paying a fixed price of .1ETH, plus the Ethereum network gas fees at that time, to receive one of the limited, randomly-assigned NFTs from the collection. Alternatively, buyers will be able to browse avatars from the collection on the secondary market, such as OpenSea. The sale date will be announced later this month.

For more information on Saatchi Art's 'The Other Avatars' and to access the pre-sale, visit www.saatchiart.com/nft.