A photo of a trash can sold for a record breaking $252,000. Welcome to the wild world of NFTs. The image, called 64 Gallon Toter, depicts a large common plastic bin 'glitching'. This NFT by the American artist Robness sold for the astonishing amount of money on OpenSea.
If you're reading this and feel you can sell a crazy NFT artwork for big money, then take a look at our guide tohow to make and sell an NFT. But be warned, it's not as easy as you'd think. Robness faced some obstacles to get his art created.
The 38-year-old artist told AFP how NFT marketplace SuperRare initially took the art down. He said: “It was kind of like rage art, I was angry about some things. So I put that up, and it was removed. They thought I was taking Home Depot's picture and breaking copyright.”
Eventually, the NFT marketplace reinstated 64 Gallon Toter because. It seems, the NFT art world had caught up with Robness' vision. From this sale grew the NFT art movement called Trash Art.
Robness is a prolific NFT artist creating graphic and unusual images (Image credit: Robness)
Robness treads a similar path to many other NFT artists. When he first got into cryptocurrencies in 2014 the artist was living in his car by the beach, doing odd jobs to get by. He told AFP he loves the “disruptive element” of NFTs.
He is now a prolific NFT artist with projects hosted across many NFT marketplaces, making art that's both engaging and critical of modern life. He even created an NFT of a job application he made to McDonald's.
This isn't the first time an artist has pushed at the boundaries of what is considered art. Famously, when Marcel Duchamp submitted a urinal into a gallery in 1917, the art world spluttered: "It's not art!"
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If you're smirking at the idea of a picture of a bin being sold for so much money, then remember Duchamp's urinal – artists have a history of doing crazy things and making us all rethink 'what is art'. Oh, and 64 Gallon Toter currently valued on OpenSea for $80,848,305.00. We guess Robness is the one laughing – to the bank.
Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.
