Pioneers in their respective mediums, the artists have woven their gifts together to create a body of four outstanding NFTs. In this, the collective are building on the disruptive and progressive potential of NFTs and blockchain technology to reorganise and reinvent how we all work, think and create.

Building on the energy and cosmology of the Behnam-Bakhtiar paintings, Tinie Tempah created a series of new, dedicated tracks that lyrically explore the positive energy and collective action we must take as a society and a species to tackle the current environmental and climate crisis, reminding us that our future is in our hands.

Combining these streams of creative vision with his own, digital artist Vector Meldrew has realised the NFTs in their final form. The imagery of the works takes us on a journey into the metaverse and an engagement with the underlying structure of our reality. In this space that exists beyond our usual sensory perception, we are confronted with both the dark and bright potential futures that lie ahead of us.

BIOGRAPHIES

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar is a French-Iranian artist, and a recent addition to the French/Iranian art firmament. Behnam-Bakhtiar’s works have been reviewed by The Guardian, RT, Huffington Post, Tatler, Vanity Fair, GQ, Bazaar, and AD. His work is held in several private collections, and some notable recent exhibitions include at the Niavaran Cultural Center, Villa Santo Sospir, Saatchi Gallery, Setareh Gallery, Villa Namouna (Centre Culturel de Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat) amongst others. Behnam-Bakhtiar is also committed to philanthropy via the Fondation Behnam-Bakhtiar, which seeks to support artists and various charities for children around the world.

Kamiar Maleki is a collector, curator, fair director, patron and philanthropist with over 15 years experience collecting, curating and managing art projects and fairs. As one of the pioneers of art collection on Instagram, he curated HashtagAbstract, the first show in which collectors bought and sold art exclusively via Instagram. He served as Fair Director of Contemporary Istanbul from 2016–2018, and currently serves as Director of the VOLTA Art Fairs in Basel, New York and Miami. In his philanthropic capacity, he is founder of the Agha Khan Museum UK Patrons Chapter, as well as the Founder of the ICA Young Patrons for the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, England.

Tinie Tempah is one of the most successful British rappers of all time. During his career, Tinie has had seven number one singles in the UK. His debut album, Disc-Overy, topped the charts in the UK and was certified double platinum. He has won a number of awards, including the MOBO Awards, Brit Awards and an Ivor Novello. All three of his studio albums have made it to various top ten charts. He has scored more number one singles than any other British artist of the last decade. He is a ‘UNICEF UK’ supporter and is committed to supporting charities for young people.

Vector Meldrew started in the music industry at 16 earning some early co-signs from Missy Elliott and Prince Charles. With over 20 years of creating digital art and supporting musicians through art, Vector Meldrew is one of the pioneers in his industry. He created the first grime music platform and worked on creative campaigns to champion Tinie’s music before the fame and is excited to be collaborating with him again on this ground breaking project. By nature collaborative and experimental, Vector has taken his art from gracing the VJ circuit at Glastonbury festival, to being shown at animated short film festivals and Adult Swim forming the foundations of commercial directing work at his company Dazzle Ship.

PROJECT PARTNERS

Gemini: Gemini Europe Services, Ltd (no. 12471710) is a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian that allows customers to buy, sell, and store bitcoin, ether, and other cryptocurrencies. It is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a cryptoasset firm with firm reference number 921817. Gemini Europe, Ltd (company number 11497305) is an Electronic Money Institution authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 900988. Gemini was founded in 2014 by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to empower the individual through crypto.
www.gemini.com

Nifty Gateway: Nifty Gateway is a digital art auction platform for NFT art. Nifty Gateway has sold NFTs by Beeple, Grimes and other widely followed NFT artists. In March 2021, Nifty Gateway began a partnership with the auction house Sotheby’s. Nifty Gateway teams up with top artists and brands to create collections of limited edition, high quality Nifties, exclusively available on our platform. We’ve teamed up with people like world renowned artist Michael Kagan. Nifty Gateway is also a centralised, USD based marketplace for buying and selling Nifties. Nifty Gateway lets you display your Nifties, as well as withdraw them to external wallets, or deposit Nifties from external wallets into your collection.
https://niftygateway.com/

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world’s largest and most renowned auctioneers, offering fine art and antiques, motor cars and jewellery. The main salerooms are in London, New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, with auctions also held in Knightsbridge, Edinburgh, Paris, San Francisco and Sydney. With a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 22 countries, Bonhams offers advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full list of forthcoming auctions, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, please visit bonhams.com.