Award-winning NFT artwork exhibited on giant billboard at LA intersection

A piece of interactive art by Micah Johnson, a former Major League Baseball player turned nonfungible-token artist, will spend the next month exhibited on a giant electronic billboard in Los Angeles.

Micah Johnson’s “ˈsä-v(ə-)rən-tē” (pronounced “sovereignty”) was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and features two African American boys hoping to fulfill their dream of becoming astronauts.

This is represented by a spacesuit behind a closed door. Each year on the boys’ birthdays, they move closer to the gradually opening door, depending on the amount of Bitcoin (BTC) donations made by holders of a nonfungible token version of the artwork.

The artwork will be displayed on the StandardVision billboard on the side of the Courtyard Marriot hotel on West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles from Dec. 7 through Jan. 10, 2021

Jacquelin Napal, owner of Art Angels — the gallery showing the artwork — explained that the piece of drive-by art was intended to provide the public with some cultural relief during the coronavirus pandemic:

“Everyone should have the opportunity to view art and experience culture. We hope bringing poignant works like ˈsä-v(ə-)rən-tē to the community will serve as a refreshing shift of focus away from our current predicament.”

Last month, the artwork was sold for over $120,000 on the Async Art platform, a record for a purely NFT artwork.

The piece also won the headline “NFT of the Year” award at the 2020 NFT Awards announced this week.