The prolific dance/hip-hop artist M.I.A. is the latest musician to tap into the non-fungible token (NFT) craze. At 4 p.m. EST on Thursday, April 8, a still image titled “GIFTY 1” will be sold in a 24-hour auction through Foundation, an NFT marketplace.
“GIFTY 1,” part of a more robust art series titled “NFT GARAGE DANCE,” is an image from a GIF collection described in a press release as “bookending [M.I.A.’s] tenure as a digital artist.” The auction will be followed by yet another NFT drop titled “KALA COYN.”
“KALA COYN and the GARAGE DANCE series is a living, breathing, psycho-spectral canvas that crystalizes this moment in time for me,” M.I.A. wrote in a statement. “Visually, it’s a mind fuck and embodies everything I’ve loved about the digital art arena. It’s only now that the appropriate gallery for my work finally exists.”