Over the course of a mere 24 hours, NFT (non-fungible token) artist FEWOCiOUS has sold a staggering $19 million (£14.5 million) of his digital artwork. The limited public sale is the third-highest grossing in the history of the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway.
Victor Langlois, commonly known as FEWOCiOUS, is already one of the most successful NFT artists of all time. At just 19 years old, Langlois has risen to prominence as a member of the growing community of queer crypto-native artists. In the last year alone, the teenager has amassed around $50 million (£38.3 million) in total sales. He even crashed Christie’s website when buyers flooded to place bids during a sale of his work.
Although Langlois has been creating since the age of 13, he only started selling digital art two years ago. “It’s been hard for me to process, to be honest,” remarked a baffled Langlois about his recent success.
About 5,000 people bought a part of Langlois’ “Paint” collection during the sale. The NFTs feature small multi-coloured paint droplets, reminiscent of the artist’s signature style, suspended in front of a cloudy background. FEWOCiOUS NFT holders were able to exclusively access the sale on 3rd April 2022 before the public. The profitable sale closed the next day with 30,198 units sold, equating to about $19 million (£14.5 million) in takings.
Mateen Soudagar, a wealthy digital art collector with large stacks of Ethereum, invested around $260,000 (£199,345) in Paint during the sale. Tweeting about his purchase, Soudagar explained that “as artists go on and build their legacy, earlier/iconic drops seem to be more and more desired. I think a rapid expansion of new collectors will bring exposure to earlier pieces [like “Paint”].”
Langlois wants to put the funds to good use by expanding his small operational team of three people. “The dream isn’t to relax and do nothing,” said the artist. “The dream is to draw.”
The team plan to build a metaverse-style world, called FewoWorld, where Langlois’ projects can coexist digitally. Although little is currently known about the generative art project, there will be little characters called “Fewos” that inhabit the world, which according to Langlois is unlike anything he has created before.
“The way I view it is, what would Michelangelo do if he had a laptop and social media to talk to the best creators on earth,” postulated the artist.
Like many other crypto-artists, Langlois’ mainstream popularity has grown immeasurably in the last year. One of his most notable sales was the genesis piece for an NFT called “Nice to meet you, I’m Mr. MiSUNDERSTOOD”, which sold for a whopping $2.8 million (£2.2 million) at Sotheby’s in October 2021.
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