'The Currency: LG OLED #3' by Damien Hirst, 2023
Original show card from the artist's 'The Currency', 2021.
From a collaboration with Light Gallery at Frieze, London, 2023.
Officially licensed by Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.
6 x 4 Inches
15.2 x 10.2 Centimeters
10 x 8 x 0.8 Inches (framed)
Offset lithograph print with Soy ink on FSC certified paper stock.
Open Edition (Sold Out).
*Note: Float-framed in UV glass with black (or white) MDF frame molding.
ABOUT THE ART
Recently, Damien Hirst sold thousands of NFTs of his famous spot paintings, giving buyers the choice to keep the digital art, or swap for the original physical work. NFTs worth millions have since been destroyed - and today he'll start setting fire to the originals, too.
When he's not preserving dead animals in formaldehyde or encrusting skulls with diamonds, Damien Hirst is known for his spots.
On the surface, they appear to be a more innocent affair, clusters of rainbow blobs that simply make the beholder feel happy, rather than provoking the outrage that a pickled shark or sliced-down-the middle cow and her calf might, say, or a photograph of the artist posing and grinning next to a severed human head.
That was until Hirst announced his spots were to become part of an NFT experiment, 'The Currency', a project met with glee and admiration by some in the art world and fans of his work - but a fair amount of scepticism and criticism, too.