Beeple- a prolific artist whose real name is Mike Winkelmann- has been at the forefront of contemporary culture as of late due to his success selling NFT’s (or non-fungible tokens which are digital representations of art with ownership verified by a blockchain) and his “Everydays” series of art which- as the name suggests- involves him creating a piece of digital art every day. This is a series that has been ongoing for fourteen years, beginning way back in May of 2007. One of his pieces- a collection of the first 5000 days of this series- sold for around 69 million dollars at Christies this March, becoming the first piece of digital art to do so. His work is known for its socio-political commentary and the use of popular figures in both pop culture and politics. One of his “Everyday” works is a scathing commentary on North Korea, depicting leader Kim Jong-Un as a hideous half human, half mecha robot creature lording over his loyal army. This piece was posted to Beeple’s Instagram and Twitter back in April of 2020 but it is now going available as a Youtooz collectible figure.
The figure- dubbed “Jong 2.0 by Beeple”– is a limited edition one, with only 333 being available upon its release. The figure is already sold out and it isn’t clear as to whether Youtooz will be stocking anymore as it is a figure for pre-order in September, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out on their website- linked here– if you’re interested in this highly unique figure! Make sure to check out Beeple on his website, Instagram and Twitter here too for more of his awesome artwork.
