International Women’s Day: Sotheby’s Auction House and UnicornDAO to Hold Art Auction Benefitting Women’s Rights

Last updated: | 2 min read
Cosmic Bloom by Jen Stark. Source: Sotheby’s

In honor of International Women’s Day, Sotheby’s auction house is hosting a benefit auction titled “My Body, My Business.” 

The event will showcase a diverse collection of feminist artwork, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), featuring established and emerging female artists. The auction promises to be a celebration of creativity, empowerment, and the enduring strength of women’s voices in the art world and beyond.

The auction of physical and digital art, which runs between March 7 and 14, is presented by Sotheby’s and UnicornDAO, a collectors’ decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) devoted to women’s and gender-fluid NFTs. 

Curated by Russian political activist and Pussy Riot’s co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, the sale is designed to allocate a portion of proceeds to reproductive healthcare organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the auction house said in a statement

“This sale includes a variety of works from traditional and digitally native women artists, who use their art as a medium to advocate and explore a wide range of topics related to women’s rights, including reproductive rights, gender-based violence, body image, representation and many more,” according to Sotheby’s. 

In addition to serving as the auction’s curator, Tolokonnikova will also feature her own work, Fragile Masculinity Genesis, which constitutes “the initial piece of a broader project that is set to unfold in the upcoming months, involving performance, audio-visual work as well as an installation by Pussy Riot,” the statement said. 

The piece will be accompanied by a number of works by artists that are to include Marina Abramovic, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Meyohas, Jenny Holzer, and many female creators.

The exhibited art includes Cosmic Bloom by Jen Stark, an NFT with an estimate of between $25,000 and $35,000 and a starting bid set at $10,000. 

Cosmic Bloom is an 8-frame animation representing the cycle of infinity. Jen Stark’s art is driven by her interest in conceptualizing visual systems to simulate plant growth, evolution, infinity, fractals, mimetic topographies, and sacred geometries,” the auction house said.

Another digital art piece, INTO THE UNKNOWN by Olive Allen, has an estimated value of between $10,000 and $15,000, and a starting bid of $5,000. 

Allen, who is a New York-based NFT artist and tech entrepreneur, said the offered piece “is a third-person adventure game created in Unreal Engine. As the main character, you must embrace uncertainty and trust your instincts to navigate through the twists and turns of the maze. The artwork is a metaphor on life itself. There are many levels and multitudes of paths to take”. 

Most of the featured artwork can be purchased with the use of crypto, according to information from Sotheby’s.