NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced fRiENDSiES by FriendsWithYou, a historic NFT sale taking place from March 26 – March 28, 2022. fRiENDSiES is a Web3 community developed by LA-based contemporary artist duo FriendsWithYou, founded on principles of kindness and friendship. This auction will stand as the first time Christie’s has offered collectors the opportunity to collaborate directly with creators to design, mint and build hybrid digital/physical artworks. The sale and the fRiENDSiES project at large, represents a convergence of the digital and physical worlds, a space in which Christie’s is committed to promoting and continues to explore.

Hosted on OpenSea, the auction will be the premiere of a unique character builder, loaded with pre-designed 3D assets that will eventually materialize into ten thousand customized digital companions, realized through their immutable launch on-chain. The first of the 10,000 fRiENDSiES was sold in December 2021, during Christie’s first collaboration with OpenSea. The upcoming sale will present buyers with a two-day window during which they can acquire the next nine of the fRiENDSiES in the series—editions 00002 through 00010. Each of these nine lots will give buyers an opportunity to buy a mint pass, presented in sequential order, thus granting them exclusive access to the NFT builder before it is released to the public. Once each of the nine collectors designs and mints their one-of-a-kind fRiENDSiE, FriendsWithYou will build and gift the collector with a painted bronze sculpture of their own design—made only for the nine buyers. Following Christie’s sale, the rest of the community will be granted access to mint their own digital fRiENDSiES.

Noah Davis, Christie’s Head of Digital Art, remarks, “I am beyond stoked to partner with Sam, Tury and their amazing team on debuting the fRiENDSiES project for Web3. What I love most about what FriendsWithYou is doing is their consistent focus on promoting and generating only the most positive of vibes. As we all embark on this weird wild journey of building the various metaverses, it’s comforting to know there are teams like FWY advocating for wholesomeness, teamwork and above all the freedom of creativity.”

The artists, Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, remark, “We believe this is the future of art, a new type of creation where the collector is creating the work with us through new blockchain technologies. It is an important evolution of art in which we all become the artist in this fun and joyful way. fRiENDSiES are the companions of the near AR/AI future, and this is the art of the future being created right now. Our goals are to create a positive project that enriches collectors both monetarily and communally - causing a ripple effect of empowerment through play and collecting. We hope the fRiENDSiES ethos compounds into a wave of hope and optimism, guiding the future of technology and art as we grow this project, which we view as a garden of friendship.”