Fresh off the back of his major exhibition at Park avenue armory, friends with benefits are partnering with artist Rashaad Newsome and Daata on the drop of Rashaad’s first-ever NFT. The drop is accompanied by a live conversation with the artist on the FWB Discord along with a written conversation between Rashaad and fellow artist Arthur Jafa.
Rashaad Newsome’s socially-orientated work blends several practices, including collage, sculpture, film, photography, music, computer programming, software engineering, community organizing, and performance, to create an altogether new field.
His first NFT drop, Am I A Mandelbulb (2022), is an introspective film that shows a dodecahedron mutating into ever more intricate fractals. The crystalline shape at times appears bejeweled with precious diamonds, gold chains and bouncing booties. In contrast to these 2D symbols of male authority, a Mandelbulb is a widely recognized 3D fractal form, known for its beauty and infinite complexity. The title is a question with no question mark, suggesting swaggering confidence to Newsome’s multiplicitous sense of self.
This collaged NFT connects directly with Assembly, Rashaad’s major commission for the Park Avenue armory, NY, which last week received critic’s pick in The New York Times for an expansive multimedia exhibition, which pulled from the world of advertising, the internet, art history, and black and queer culture.
