Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, has produced one digital artwork every day since 1 May 2007, a discipline he has maintained through his wedding, the births of his children, and more than 5,000 consecutive days of output. The project, called Everydays, began modestly enough. It became the foundation for an extraordinary disruption of the art market.
Key facts
- Born
- 1981, American[1]
- Wikipedia
- View article
Biography
In March 2021, Christie's sold Everydays: the First 5000 Days for $69.4 million, making it the first purely digital artwork auctioned by a major sale house and briefly placing Winkelmann among the three highest-selling living artists. The work is a mosaic collage of all 5,000 daily images, a document of nearly fourteen years of unbroken practice. Winkelmann later described the NFT market that produced the sale as an "irrational exuberance bubble", a judgement that may prove correct without diminishing the historical fact of what happened.
His visual idiom is satirical and dystopian: familiar corporate logos, celebrity faces, and political figures appear in distorted futures, rendered with the technical polish of commercial motion graphics and the political temperament of editorial cartooning. From 2009 to 2019 he also produced VJ Loops, free abstract animations downloaded millions of times and used at live events worldwide.
Winkelmann studied computer science at Purdue University, graduating in 2003, and relocated to North Charleston, South Carolina in 2017, where he operates Beeple Studios from a 50,000-square-foot facility.
Timeline
- 1981Born as Mike Winkelmann.
- 2003Graduated from Purdue University with a degree in computer science.
- 2007Began the "Everydays" project on 1 May, creating one digital artwork daily.
- 2009Began producing VJ Loops, free abstract animations.
- 2017Relocated to North Charleston, South Carolina.
- 2021His work "Everydays: the First 5000 Days" sold at Christie's for $69.4 million.
Notable Works
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Related Artists
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Beeple known for?
Beeple is known for his Everydays project, in which he has produced one digital artwork every day since 1 May 2007. He is also known for selling Everydays: the First 5000 Days for $69.4 million at Christie's, making it the first purely digital artwork auctioned by a major sale house. He also produced VJ Loops, free abstract animations downloaded millions of times and used at live events worldwide from 2009 to 2019.Who was Beeple?
Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is a digital artist who has produced one digital artwork every day since 1 May 2007. He is known for disrupting the art market with his digital creations. Winkelmann operates Beeple Studios from a 50,000-square-foot facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.What was Beeple's art style?
Beeple's visual idiom is satirical and dystopian. Familiar corporate logos, celebrity faces, and political figures appear in distorted futures in his work. His pieces are rendered with the technical polish of commercial motion graphics and the political temperament of editorial cartooning.When was Beeple born?
Beeple was born in 1981[1].
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Beeple.
- [1] wikipedia Wikipedia: Beeple Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
- [2] book Dorling Kindersley, Artists: Inspiring Stories of the World's Most Creative Minds Used for: biography, stylistic analysis.
- [3] book downmagaz.net, downmagaz.net Used for: biography.
- [4] book Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Concise History of Western Art, 2nd ed. Used for: stylistic analysis.
- [5] book Masterpieces of western art : a history of art in 900 individual studies from the Gothic to the present day Used for: biography.
- [6] book Landauer, Susan, The not-so-still life : a century of California painting and sculpture Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-06-18. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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