Illuminating Women in a Sea of DICKBUTTS
DICKBUTTS. CREATURES. APES. It’s no secret. Most NFT buyers and founders are male. Beeple, Matt & John from Larva Labs, Fewocious, that guy that made the Nyan cat meme, Bored Ape Yacht Club. All male. Need I say more?
I’m Lauren, a female in crypto and I just started working here at Fractional! Having this platform, I wanted to start with a topic that means a great deal to me. As a female who entered web3 from the tech world, I quickly noticed the lack of diversity. As I started searching, I came across incredible female NFT artists and founders that really deserve celebrating — so today I’m showcasing five of them.
What she’s done:
Krista Kim is a contemporary artist and founder of the Techism movement, she sold the world’s first NFT House, “Mars House,” for 288 ETH in March 2021, which at that time was over $515,000. The piece received global acclaim and at the time was the highest grossing sale of an NFT on SuperRare. The 3D NFT creation, which can be uploaded onto various metaverses, “Mars House” is just the tip of the iceberg in the future of metaverse real estate.
What she’s doing:
Just recently, “Mars House” was showcased at Sotheby’s NYC Marquee exhibition along with art luminaries Mark Rothko and Frida Khalo. Described by Forbes as “the new digital Rothko,” since “Mars House” Kim has worked with Louis Vuitton in celebration of Louis’ 200th birthday, been recognized by Architectural Digest, been named one of the most influential people in the Metaverse by Read and Write Magazine, and acted as creative director for the Utah Jazz NBA Teams “JazzXR” campaign, the NBA’s first NFT.
Why she’s a freakin’ boss:
The majority of proceeds from “Mars House” went directly to the CONTINUUM Foundation which has the goal of supporting healing through sound and light for mental health. Krista Kim is the founder of CONTINUUM which is currently on a world tour, offering an immersive light and sound video installation. Also, like, “Mars House” shall we touch on that again?
What she’s done:
Claire Silver is an AI collaborative artist, early adopter of the CryptoPunks project and NFT enthusiast. She collected her first NFT in 2017 and has since successfully offered her own NFT art up for sale. She just recently released a collection called Braindrops which sold out within an hour. She calls herself an AI collaborative artist as her own artwork comes from the use of oils, acrylics, collage, photography and programs like procreate and artbreeder.
What she’s doing:
Using not only her talents but her own audience, Claire is the cofounder of Accelerate Art which strives to amplify new and emerging artists. Accelerate Art is a hybrid digital art gallery & artist accelerator program in the virtual world, CryptoVoxels. The main venture is to host a rotating exhibition of 4–5 new artists per month with the goal of bringing attention to their work and hosting an auction. After the month is over, 1 piece from each artist’s collection will go to the permanent gallery. The idea of the permanent gallery as Claire explains in multiple interviews, is like having a snapshot of the community at that given time, almost like a time capsule we can have forever.
Why she’s a freakin’ boss:
In multiple interviews, Claire explains that the reason she got into digital art was due to a chronic illness causing her to quit her full time job. The new time she had on her hands transitioned into a passion for oil painting and blossomed into a career in the digital art world back in 2017 — I think we can all agree, Claire was early. gmi.
What she’s done:
Maliha Abidi, 26, born in Pakistan has been advocating for girls’ education, banning child marriage, domestic violence, mental health, and more for the last 9 years and now she’s using NFT’s to reach more people and put the power into women artists hands. Her book “Pakistan for Women: Stories of women who have achieved something extraordinary” launched in 2019 and was the first book of its kind to be published in Pakistan! She’s also the founder of SOMH, The Story of Mental Health, an intersectional organization focused on empowering women and youth from marginalized communities to start conversations around mental health. Her work has been featured in Galmour Magazine, on the BBC, with the Malala Fund, and other significant media outlets.
What she’s doing:
Noted from interviews, Maliha wants to make sure people understand that NFTs are a radical tool that can change the human world. She has the dream of building a decentralized school in the metaverse with online classes for girls and through her NFT project, Women Rise, Maliha aims to bring more than 100,000 women into the world of NFTs by the end of 2022. Her NFT project, Women Rise released on November 25th! and includes super rare NFTs that represent real world women including Frida Khalo, Aretha Franklin, Malala Yousafzai, and more.
Why she’s a freakin’ boss:
She wrote “Pakistan for Women: Stories of women who have achieved something extraordinary.” She founded The Story of Mental Health. She created Women Rise NFT project.
I mean seriously, please refer to the two paragraphs above.
Natalia Ameline & Elena Sinelnikova
What they’ve done:
CryptoChicks was co-founded by Natalia Ameline and Elena Sinelnikora in 2017 after Natalia’s son, Vitalik Buterin — creator of Ethereum, asked them to open a crypto wallet on Natalia’s laptop. They had such a hard time installing the wallet on the computer that they realized there was an opportunity for them to figure out how it worked and help other women do the same. They went to conferences, noticed the lack of women and started a meetup group for women who wanted to learn blockchain — and that is how the enterprise of CryptoChicks began. It has since expanded to countries all over the world and offers hackathons, workshops, educational courses and what they call “CryptoChicks Hatchery,” a program for the women in their community to help create their own businesses, offers courses and even brings in mentors on a weekly basis.
What they’re doing:
Besides running Cryptochicks both Natalia and Elena are also currently a part of MetisDAO, a Layer2 DAO protocol on a mission to leverage current DAO infrastructure while opening up access to a full suite of administration and community tools.
Why they’re freakin’ bosses:
In May 2021, Natalia and Elena launched the first female avatar collection on Opeansea, 200 “Crypto.Chick 1/1” NFTs. At the time this was not only the first female avatar but one of the few human based collections. In September 2021, they launched “Crypto.Chicks” a collection of 10,000 “gorgeous, proud, independent, and empowered girls.” In my opinion, this has since paved the way for other woman led profile picture NFT projects.
What she’s done:
Early in the game, Jen Stark dropped her debut NFT, in March 2021, Multiverse on the Foundation app. In just 24 hours it sold for 150 ETH, approximately $400,000 at the time, breaking records and making her the first female on Foundation’s top 10 creators!
What she’s doing:
Most recently, Stark exhibited Cascade, a month-long interactive installation being showcased at the William Vale in Brooklyn September 17th to November 7th, 2021. In an interview, Stark says it’s the biggest project that she’s ever done with the space being over 6,000 square feet large. Stark has also created her own social token, the $STARK coin where holders will get access to different things like studio tours, prints, etc.
Why she’s a freakin’ boss:
Stark is currently leading a DAO launched by minting platform, CXIP. The sole purpose being to look out for artists’ rights in the metaverse, any creator who has minted an NFT with ETH can join the DAO and an advisory committee of advocates and artists will help those in need make decisions in their early stages.
Our mission at Fractional is to democratize access to NFTs and enable new communities. We want Web3 to be an inclusive place for a diverse array of voices and perspectives to participate, and that means bringing more women into the space as well!
Leave a comment for any women in web3 you’d love to shoutout and if you are a female in crypto, reach out to us to learn how you can get involved more. We want to hear from you. :)
As for Krista, Claire, Maliha, Natalia, Elena and Jen… if you are ever looking to Fractionalize one of your NFTs, Hmu.
