Courtesy of Blake Kathryn
Aespa, the four-member K-pop group from SM Entertainment, is launching an NFT collection with the Web3 artist Blake Kathryn that will give fans access to exclusive content and a rare meet-and-greet with the group in Seoul.
Beginning Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. PT to Oct. 21 at 8 a.m. PT, NFTs from the collection — called æ girls — will be auctioned on Sotheby’s digital marketplace for NFTs. The entire collection will drop in three parts, with each part being available for a 48-hour period during the weeklong auction.
The first part in the series will be open edition, meaning the NFT can be minted an unlimited number of times. The NFT will serve as an access key to holders and will come with one additional piece of digital artwork.
The second part, “Altars,” will include a set of 32 special and limited edition NFTs of each of the Aespa group members (Karina, Giselle, Winter and NingNing). The digital artworks will come with a personalized recording from each member discussing the artwork. The first edition of each of the Altars will go to the highest bidder and come with a signed autograph print from the artist and the four Aespa members.
The final and most rare work in the æ girls NFT collection will be called “Dreamspace.” The work is a single-edition piece that is meant to be reflective of the virtual environment for each Aespa member. “Dreamscape” holders will receive a video recording from Aespa and Kathryn, a virtual meet-and-greet with Kathryn, and — most significantly — an all-expenses paid trip to Seoul to meet the K-pop group and attend one of their concerts.
“We love connecting with our fans in new ways that embrace technology, and this new NFT collection is really cool, cute and cutting edge,” Aespa said in a joint statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Blake Kathryn is an amazing artist, and we enjoyed the process of collaborating with her to create this collection.”
The K-pop group first debuted in 2020 with the single “Black Mamba” and, earlier this year, performed at Coachella. The group’s name, often stylized all in lowercase letters, is an amalgamation of “avatar,” “experience” and “aspect,” and each member has her own accompanying digital avatar.
The æ girls collection will be on display at Sotheby’s galleries in New York and Hong Kong, and the collaboration between Aespa and Kathryn was facilitated by the brand agencies Connecting Dotts and INVNT.ATOM.
“It was a pleasure to collaborate with aespa on this first-of-its-kind NFT collection,” Kathryn, who has previously worked with Lil Nas X, Paris Hilton and Jimmy Choo, said. “This release is an authentic reflection of Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning and captures the unique essence and qualities of each of these powerful women. My hope is that it reflects female artists pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, blurring the lines between real and virtual to create a new kind of fandom.”