Gm,

My many musings, in Minutes. Let’s begin…

Minute # 1 - The Secret to Stand Out Collabs

In 1984, art dealer Bruno Bischofberger made an introduction that would change contemporary art forever.

Over lunch, Bruno introduces his dear fren Andy Warhol to a new artist he recently discovered:

Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Now, this was back in the 80s…

Warhol had already reached the pinnacle of contemporary art, and critics might even say he was on the way down.

And young Jean-Michel was not yet the Basquiat we now know.

The lunch turns into a frenship, then to a collaboration…

You would think, a Basquiat-Warhol partnership would melt the minds of patrons and silence any critics.

At their first joint exhibition, the critics would prove them wrong, with many pointing out how dependent the artists were on each other:

Warhol needed Basquiat to push him artistically and Basquiat needed Warhol’s mentorship.

While pointed out as a negative, in here lies the key to stand out collabs.

I feel collabs are best done when two artists join forces to create a new world altogether…

A world that could not have existed by the will of one artist alone.

A partnership where both artists NEED each other.

Time is the ultimate truth teller and the critics would be proven wrong.

The Warhol-Basquiat works would eventually find their place in many notable private collections, including the Mugrabi Collection, and set the standard for collabs in contemporary art.

Now, bringing it back to digital art, a collab that blew me away was METAMORPHE by Reuben Wu and Jenni Pasanen.

I loved how concise it is, with only 6 works in the collection and as legendary artist Keith Haring put it, it is a perfect example of…

“Two amazing minds fusing together to create a third totally separate and unique mind.”

Minute # 2 - Perkins Premium

Speaking of stand out work, you quite often hear stories in the art world of bidding wars gone wrong (or right, depending on which side you’re on).

Perhaps none is more legendary than Bill Perkins’ acquisition of The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes.

ArtNet wrote a great article here, detailing Bill’s outlook on acquiring art and why he paid 75 TIMES THE ESTIMATE for the work!

Just wait until Bill finds the jpegs 😆

Minute # 3 - Checks by Jack Butcher

I’ve been a long time admirer of Jack Butcher, who takes complex ideas and simplifies them through art.

And his new project, Checks, has me intrigued.

Checks is a nod to Twitter selling blue checks, for $8.

It started with an open edition, which was minted 16,031 times in 24 hours.

While I’m a bit bored of burns, I feel the innovative mechanics here could be a game changer.

In the initial artwork, there are 80 check marks.

Jack is now creating editions with 40, 20, 10, 5, 4 and a single checkmark.

The way it works…

if you own 2 of the original 80 check NFT, you can burn them to get a 40 check NFT.

And if you burn 2 of the 40 check NFT, you get a 20 check NFT.

So on, and so forth.

I feel the important part here is - you can stop at any time…if you love the 80 check NFT, great!

No need to burn anything.

If you love the 20 check NFT, that’s great too, burn till you get the 20 check, then stop!

I am loving the game theory at play and the thrill of it all.

We have absolutely no idea how many single check NFTs will exist in a year…

And we have no clue how many of the original 80 check NFTs will exist, as both are up to the community to decide!

If someone listens to you, they’re your audience. If they respond, they’re your community.

And I feel Jack is putting on a masterclass, showing us all what true community activation looks like (pay attention, PFP projects!)

If you want to read more about Checks, I enjoyed reading this thread.

DigitalOil.nftr @0xDigitalOil At this point you've probably heard of #ChecksVV, @jackbutcher (@visualizevalue)'s homage collection to @elonmusk's $8 @twitter checkmark initiative. Read along and enjoy this quick 🧵 on why I think it achieved PMF & and a synthesis of the best tweets and derivatives to date👇 pic.twitter.com/rI6wJgrNJS January 15th 2023 128 Retweets 419 Likes

Minute # 4 - Beeple Studios

Beeple just announced his new studio in Charleston. Only fitting that the legendary artist would have a legendary studio with a launch party to melt faces. Video here in case you missed it.

beeple @beeple extremely excited to announce the GRAND OPENING of BEEPLE STUDIOS on March 11th in Charleston!! 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/rdPxyeewl1 January 18th 2023 897 Retweets 4,748 Likes

Minute # 5 - The Memes by 6529

Can’t talk about activating the community, without mentioning The Memes by Punk 6529.

Now I must admit, when my fren 6529 first sent me a couple Memes, I didn’t think much of it.

I thought the art was fun, the idea intriguing.

But I did not expect how they would take the cryptoart community by storm!

I love 6529’s focus on creating a project that will transcend the digital art bubble.

For digital art to thrive, we need the normies to arrive.

It’s a big part of my mission as well, and I feel The Memes will aid in this, for two reasons…

First, curation.

6529 & team have curated a wide range of artists, all focused around the key messages in a new “meme” format.

The meme format makes it easy for normies to understand the values around decentralization.

The messaging ties the collection together, though the art itself has great variety.

Second, ReMemes.

The reach of The Memes is limited by the number of artists and the pace of the drops themselves, so creating a playground for derivatives to thrive could exponentially increase the reach of The Memes… while adding value to the original collection. Any artist can come in and make a ReMeme.

After all, without The Memes, there would be no ReMemes.

This thread is a great primer for The Memes.

6529 @punk6529 1/ What is the point of Meme Cards? The point is that people think in stories, think in visual shorthand, think in brands, in intersubjective myths, in memes. I (we) believe in many complex ideas about self-sovereignty and centralization. January 16th 2023 209 Retweets 645 Likes

Kudos 6529 and team on this lovely execution to move a movement forward.

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Did you enjoy this issue of Medici Minutes? Please give me feedback on Twitter. Let me know which Minute was your favorite, and what you would like to see next week. Tweet to @CozomoMedici (don’t DM or it will get lost 🙂 ) with the hashtag #MediciMinutes. And if you have a fren or your followers would benefit from these insights, I always appreciate the shares.

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All my best,
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~CdM