Jeff Koons’ First NFT Project Is a Riff on Crypto’s ‘Moon’ Meme

Per a press release, a subset of the physical pieces in “Jeff Koons: Moon Phases” will “make a lunar landing on an Intuitive Machines Nova-C Lunar Lander, to be launched on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in a fully autonomous mission.” They’ll end up in Oceanus Procellarum, on the near side of the moon.

It’s a collaboration with Pace Gallery’s dedicated crypto arm, as well as two lesser-known private companies experimenting with art and tech: 4Space, founded by Chantelle Baier, and NFMoon, also founded by Chantelle Baier along with an investor named Patrick Colangelo. Intuitive Machines, the company that built the lunar lander in question, is also involved.

Koons’s works remain the priciest of any living artist. He’s best known for a series of giant, stainless steel balloon dogs, which are beloved by collectors and often dismissed by critics (he began his career as a commodities broker on Wall Street – which is to say, he knows a thing or two about what sells).

Said Koons, in a prepared statement: “I wanted to create a historically meaningful NFT project rooted in humanistic and philosophical thought. Our achievements in space represent the limitless potential of humanity. Space explorations have given us a perspective of our ability to transcend worldly constraints.”

The “to the moon” concept is also a reference to the trajectory of NFT art, which, until early 2021, was mostly dominated by crypto memes – imagery along the lines of bulls astronauts, and physical bitcoins. You can see the remnants of that style in the work of the NFT artist Beeple, who famously sold a token for $69 million last year.