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By Mark Westall • 26 July 2022
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Damien Hirst and HENI will collaborate to present a unique exhibition of paintings from his first NFT collection, The Currency, at Newport Street Gallery in London, opening on 9 September 2022. The Currency is a collection of 10,000 NFTs which correspond to 10,000 unique physical artworks created by the artist.
Collectors were given a choice: to keep the NFT or exchange it for the physical artwork. They then had one year, concluding 27 July 2022, to decide. If they have not exchanged their NFT during that period, the physical artwork will be destroyed. Similarly, if they chose to exchange it in that period, the NFT was destroyed.
The destruction of the artworks will take place during The Currency exhibition. Artworks will be burnt at a specified time each day during the run of the show. These timings will be publicised in advance.
During Frieze week, in October 2022, there will be a major closing event in the gallery during which the remaining artworks will be burnt. Damien Hirst will attend the burning event
The physical artworks were created by hand in 2016 using enamel paint on handmade paper. Each artwork is numbered, titled, stamped, and signed by the artist on the back. Additional authenticity features on the artwork paper include a watermark, a microdot and a hologram containing a portrait of the artist. On each artwork, no colour is repeated twice. The titles were generated through the application of machine learning to some of the artist’s favourite song lyrics.
Damien Hirst views The Currency as a work of art in which people participate by buying, holding, selling and exchanging the artworks.
The Currency Chronicles, a publication outlining the community experiences of the first phase of the project, will be launched during the exhibition.
Mark Westall
Mark Westall is the Founder and Editor of FAD magazine Founder and co-publisher of Art of Conversation and founder of the platform @worldoffad
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