This Collab Art is Possibly the Highest NFT Sale by a Filipino Artist

“Satoshi The Creator – Genesis” is a collaboration between Filipino artist Luis Buenaventura II and Argentinian artist Jose Delbo. The art was released on Nifty Gateway on March 28 and sold 222 editions priced at $1,999 each. This makes Luis the Filipino artist with possibly the highest NFT sale today, even accounting for the split in proceeds due to it being a collaboration between two creators.

You might have heard about non fungible tokens (NFTs) while reading the daily BitPinas price updates, or maybe you have stumbled into one of our articles about it. For those who don’t know, Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs are a distinct, unique, and easily verifiable type of digital items that can represent digital items. Its most popular iteration today is tokenized digital art, called NFT art or crypto art. Because it is non-fungible, you can prove and verify who owns what NFTs, who issues them, and so on. 

In my previous article about NFTs, I explained the value of NFTs using the digital art created by Luis Buenaventura II, the artist behind the brand “CryptoPop!” and the co-founder of BloomX. Luis has been in the NFT space before the NFT craze began. I explained, “If a person buys Luis’ art, such as what Justin here did, there is “proof” that Justin currently owns the art and there is proof that that the art is created by Luis. Eventually, if Justin decides to sell this art to the next collector named Michael, Michael knows the art can be traced back to Luis because the art’s history can be traced through the blockchain.”

“This means that NFTs will allow one to trace and prove authenticity, which in turn would allow an NFT holder to sell it.“

If ever Luis becomes the next Juan Luna or Amorsolo in the year 2030, the new owner of the art has proof that he owns one of Luis’ early works, driving that early art’s price.

NFTs solve this problem in digital files where people can just copy and paste and duplicate files by the thousands. With NFT, I can’t just save a copy of an image of Luis’ art and sell it. In the words of Ollie Leech on Coindesk, “[NFT] makes the creation and circulation of fake collectibles pointless because each item can be traced back to the original issuer.”

Cointelegraph and similar publications have featured Luis’ works. One of his most notable is a series of Bitcoin price artworks highlighting particular price milestones and pop culture. Another is a series about the visual history of Bitcoin. All of which have been hits. 

His “$50,000 Endgame” art, commemorating the price milestone, is being sold for 10 Ether, worth $18,000 today. 

In my first NFT article, I discussed why owning the NFT is different from owning a screenshot or a copy of the art. 

If I screenshot Luis’s “$50,000 Endgame” or Beeple’s “Into the Ether,” both of them are NFTs, I do own a copy, but I don’t have the actual document per se. I could never sell it because people can check the transaction recorded on the blockchain to verify that I do not own the real copy. The only way to own these NFTs is to buy them with the transaction recorded on the blockchain. It’s a public record of ownership for people to verify provenance and authenticity.

Recently, there is increasing attention to some of Luis’ older works in the space. Anyone can see his evolution as an artist in terms of style, and people find value in his earlier works which demonstrate this evolution.

Last month, Luis collaborated with premier artist Jose Delbo to create “Satoshi The Creator – Genesis.”

Jose Delbo is an Argentinian artist who has worked for some of the world’s most beloved DC and Marvel Comics brands. He has penciled, inked, or illustrated some of the published adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, among many other works in an illustrious career that spans more than 70 years.

Delbo said in an announcement post:

“After seeing Luis’s previous pieces depicting the history of crypto currencies in comic style, I thought he would be the perfect person to partner with to bring this new Bitcoin superhero to the scene. Satoshi The Creator harnesses all the power of the computing network behind Bitcoin as his source of power. And his swords harness the power of lightning. All this is depicted in this piece which was brought to life by Luis.”

The art  “Satoshi The Creator – Genesis” dropped on Nifty Gateway on March 28 and sold 222 editions priced at $1,999 each. This makes Luis the Filipino artist with possibly the highest NFT sale today, even accounting for the split in proceeds due to it being a collaboration between two creators.

Luis said he and the Delbo family had been talking as far back as late November 2020. “The crypto art space is small, and I firmly believe that if you do good, consistent work, other artists and collectors will take notice. In my case, Delbo had liked my early work on Makersplace and appreciated the depth of my Bitcoin and pop culture obsession.”

Luis said the ‘Creator’ concept was already solid by the time he and Delbo talked. His role then is to take Delbo’s line art and dramatize the character introduction. “I pitched a sequence that used lightning to reveal the character, and we both agreed that that was a good thematic fit.”

At that time, however, both artists had some previous engagements that kept them occupied. Delbo had various other projects while Luis was busy launching the BloomX app, so it would be nearly three months before the project started.

In the Philippines and elsewhere, the number of digital artists engaging in NFTs has increased. Media outlet The Ken called it a lifeline for artists in Southeast Asia. The Ken writer Li Mei Foong said digital artists’ careers had been revitalized, and their income multiplied because of crypto art. 

This may be a collaboration, and both artists will split the proceeds evenly (NiftyGateway takes 20%, a standard practice). Still, it’s a demonstration that NFTs are another opportunity that can be tapped upon by digital artists everywhere. Luis noted:

“I look at NFTs, like cryptocurrencies themselves, as “programmable opportunity.” Cryptocurrencies are an opportunity for everyone to trade and transact with everyone else around the world. They’re an opportunity to opt out of the established fiat regime. 

NFTart provides a similar opportunity for artists to collaborate and offer their work to an art community that they would never have had access to otherwise. What we choose to do with these new opportunities, and how we choose to navigate these unfamiliar territories, is entirely up to us.”

As to what he’ll do with the proceeds, the artist said his first instinct is to make his family be taken care of. “Other than that, I confess that I haven’t made any significant decisions about what to do with these funds. Like Beeple, I suppose I’ll just use it to make ‘more cool shit,” Luis remarked.

This article is first published on BitPinas: This Collab Art is One of the Highest NFT sale by a Filipino Artist