Kevin Abosch (/ˈeɪbɒʃ/ AY-bosh;[1] born 1969) is an Irish conceptual artist and pioneer in cryptoart[2] 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,[3] The National Gallery of Ireland,[4] The National Museum of China,[5] The Irish Museum of Modern Art,[6] The Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina,[7] The Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, ZKM,[8] Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume,[9] and Dublin Airport.[10]
Kevin Abosch | |
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Born | December 1969 (age 52) |
Known for | Conceptual Art, Photography, Installation art, NFTs and generative art |
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[11][12]
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,.[13][14] The photo was taken in 2010 and is one of three versions of the print in existence.
In January 2018 Abosch created 10,000,000 virtual artworks consisting of crypto-tokens on the Ethereum Blockchain.[15]
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.[16][17]
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.[18]
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).[19][20] 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.[21]
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.[22]
Kevin Abosch is creative director for Animoca Brands.[23]
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