LOS ANGELES, CA.- Friends with Benefits, the culturally-focused DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) that counts Erykah Badu, Azealia Banks, and David Rudnick as members, is partnering with OpenSea, the world’s leading peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs, to commission a series of artworks from up-and-coming artists in the web3 space

The collaboration will culminate in The Flock, an immersive gallery exhibition at FWB Fest and a curatorial initiative on OpenSea’s homepage with works by artists Andrew Benson, Ayaka Ohira, Case Simmons, Ezra Miller, Niall Ashley, Nic Hamilton, Petra Cortright, Sarah Zucker, Tyler Givens, and Vivian Fu.

The collection of unique, 1/1 artworks will be available for sale starting this Friday, August 12 on OpenSea's homepage, which receives 100,000,000 site visits per month. The artworks will also be displayed at an immersive gallery exhibition at FWB Fest, a 3-day festival experience taking place August 12 to 14 at a private arts academy in Idyllwild, CA. This collaboration marks the first time that OpenSea’s homepage will be curated by an outside organization.

The $100,000 commissioning fund provided by OpenSea will empower FWB’s curatorial team to work closely with artists from across the traditional art world and the NFT space, helping them bring new creative works to life.

As a decentralized organization, the FWB community was asked to collectively approve the proposed partnership with OpenSea, which passed with 98% approval in May 2022. The process of facilitating a decentralized discussion and vote, and assembling an internal curation team made up of prominent curators, artists, and entrepreneurs, introduces a radically new approach to how exhibitions and collections are created and maintained in web3.

All of the commissioned artists are active FWB members. The curatorial selection process also involved nominations from community members, and half of the ten exhibiting artists were selected via the nomination process.

"FWB is the premier cultural and social DAO, and we're excited to partner with them to uplift artists in the web3 space," said Alexander Bercow, Partnerships at OpenSea. "The FWB team has curated an incredible lineup of artists that we're thrilled to bring to our community via our homepage and our weekly collaboration on NFT Pirate Radio. We're looking forward to continuing to work with the FWB team on our shared mission of moving the web3 space forward."