Breakdancing medic’s NFT auctioned at Sotheby’s — Grant Yun, NFT creator – Cointelegraph Magazine

Artist name: Grant Riven Yun 
Location: Milwaukee 
Date minted first NFT: Feb. 3, 2021
Which blockchains? Ethereum, Counterparty (Bitcoin)

Who is he?

Grant Yun has always been an artist at heart with an early aspiration to have his work featured at a major auction house. A curious and motivated individual, Yun is studying medicine while juggling his work as an artist and performing as a breakdancer who has competed all over the United States. 

Since discovering NFTs a little over two years ago, the Wisconsin resident has propelled his art and personal brand into the stratosphere much quicker than he’d imagined. With a minimalist style that elicits nostalgic vibes among collectors and his witty personality on Twitter, Yun is slicing out a significant percentage of mindshare amongst digital art fans. 

“Before NFTs, I told myself I would become an artist who sells at a large auction house one day because, at the time, that was my only metric through which I knew what it meant to be a successful artist. I had no experience being an artist overall, so that was the only metric I had to measure.” 

He reached the metric in October 2022:

“Having my work be put up at Sotheby’s was surreal. I think the most pivotal moment for me was when I signed the contract… It just felt like such a monumental moment.”

Yun paid homage to NFTs as the accelerant that helped him achieve what might otherwise have taken a decade. 

“It’s honestly been surreal. I think that the growth of artists in this space is hyper accelerated. To have achieved what I’ve achieved shouldn’t happen within a decade. For me, it happened within two years of me joining the space. But, here we are.” 

Personal style

Describing his own distinct style, Yun acknowledges the impact of simplicity to evoke memories and the impact of old school video games. 

“I see my work as minimalist and nostalgic,” he says. “I think my art is really focused on being ambiguous enough to where people can relate to it with their own personal experiences, but specific enough to where it can elicit certain memories from people’s lives.”

“I try to limit the amount of details and clutter. It’s really a less in more kind of mentality.”

“With the gaming vibes in my art, it’s mostly based around Nintendo games — particularly the Super Nintendo era, Nintendo 64 and GameCube. I feel like Nintendo games, especially the ones that were published by Nintendo themselves, have a very specific color palette — a bit like Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda. All of those have a very unique and similar kind of set of colors.” 

Notable sales to date:

“The Alien” from the series “Space” sold for 136.9 ETH on July 28, 2022 ($236,217 equivalent on date of sale).

“Laundry” from the series “Northeast” sold for 70 ETH on Jan. 28, 2023 ($115,182 equivalent on date of sale).

“Casa Roja” from “Grant Yun Early Works” sold for 25 ETH on Jan. 8, 2023 ($31,596.50 equivalent on date of sale).

“En Route #7” from the “Grant Yun x Avant Arte” collection sold for 16 ETH on Jan. 3, 2023 ($19,426 equivalent on date of sale).

Influences

Traditional art continues to provide inspiration, particularly established painters from the early to mid-20th century, such as American Gothic painter Grant Wood or the pop artist Ed Ruscha.

“Most of my inspiration comes from painters like Grant and Ed and studying painting from the traditional art world.” 

Yun added, “I should mention, I do like to leave easter egg, crypto-related things in my illustrations. But the vision for where my art is going I think has remained the same.” 

What should artists be paying attention to? 

As a student of the digital art game and a big fan of generative art in particular, Yun says Mpkoz is one to watch out for. Mpkoz is the artist behind the notable collection “Chimera.” 

Also receiving props from Yun is Summer Wagner, an emerging NFT photographer who Justin Aversano also rated in a recent NFT Creator. 

“Two of my favorites right now are…