From the underground graffiti scene where he got his name to his art being sent into space and a current solo exhibition at Sotheby’s, Ryan Wilson — aka ThankYouX — continues to soar.
ThankYouX’s distinctive style blurs the line between digital and physical art. Since jumping into NFTs three years ago, he has mesmerized collectors with art that is perfect for viewing on digital screens.
His signature cubes and hybrid physical and digital paintings are on display in his “inertia” solo exhibition at Sotheby’s in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
“With inertia, it’s an overview of everything that I’ve been working on for the past few years. There’s digital; there’s physical; there’s paintings with embedded screens in them. The past few years have been heavily digital for me with moving images and looped videos, and I wanted to have people who collect my paintings feel that same movement that is on the screens,” says ThankYouX.
“It’s again another kind of Trojan Horse for me doubling down on what’s been happening in the past few years with digital stuff. I wanted to tie it all together. The show is all about movement. You see different brush strokes going different ways, in different colorways, and each one represents a different thing.”
“Whether it’s the ocean, the wind, the clouds, planes going in a certain way, cars driving another way, or people walking certain ways, there’s all these different little hidden things in each painting, but I wanted you to feel like the painting itself is moving over time.”
Graffiti night owl marked the beginning of ThankYouX
The arc of ThankYouX’s career began in 2009 as an underground artist who derived a sense of freedom and thrill by doing graffiti all hours of the night and leaving the words “Thank you” and an “X” to mark his work. This stuck as his artist name after numerous art blogs started to refer to him as “ThankYouX.”
“It was like this anarchy and freedom to me that I would just go out in the middle of the night after working eight hours a day. I’d leave my house at 1 am and not come home till 3 am or 4 am, and then go back to work the next day at 9 am and do it all over.”
“It was like this obsession that I had, and I was very passionate about doing it. I would definitely say that it was more about the process versus the end results because, in the street stuff, you know this might last only a day, so you just get it up as fast as you can and don’t worry too much about little details in it.”
“It was very freeing to me, and I didn’t have that actual feeling again until I kind of evolved into where I’m at now in this abstract phase where I feel like the little details don’t matter in the pieces. It’s more about the feeling at the moment.”
Making the move into NFTs
In 2017, ThankYouX remembers a friend calling him about having seen the future with something called CryptoKitties, but he didn’t go too far down the rabbit hole at the time.
Fast forward to 2020, and a collector of his called up to ask if he’d seen what was happening with NFTs, given that he was interested in AR/VR and emerging tech.
“I hadn’t, and he sent me a few links, and I listened to some podcasts and read some articles. I thought back to CryptoKitties but could now see artists, and there was actually an art community there.”
As a big proponent of pushing boundaries in art, ThankYouX has flourished in this new era of his career, where he can have the best of both worlds, both physical and digital. Not everyone feels the same way.
“Sometimes, I feel like I’m like a lobbyist for both sides. I know physical work. I have to speak that language and then I go to the other side and say, ‘These guys are real artists over here; you’re missing out.’”
“But I do take pride in it. I would say I’m such a small factor, and there’s many people that are doing bigger things than I am to bridge that gap. I would say for me, it takes things like traditional art institutions to pay attention and help me build that bridge.”
“For example, years ago, Sotheby’s didn’t know who I was, and now they do, so now that I have this opportunity to do a physical show, I wanted to double down on my belief in the blockchain. Even my physical pieces come with these digital certificates of authenticity.”
Our concept for The great bridge had a few meanings… the obvious bridge itself and also the bridge of photography and painting. But maybe most importantly was art and tech. This was still early days and i never knew how important this drop would be. 2020!
— ThankYouX (@ThankYouX) July 11, 2023
Sending art into space aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
As a fan of space exploration, it was a surreal moment in May earlier this year when ThankYouX’s “Urge for Perfection” was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket, Falcon 9.
The 14×14 painting was floating around inside the rocket, as pictured below, and upon returning to Earth, it was auctioned off by Sotheby’s.
“I’d had some initial discussions with SpaceX back in 2016–2017, but it wasn’t until earlier this year when I was walking around with my agent and someone she was with. We were talking about our love for space. Turns out this person had deep involvement with Axiom Space,” says ThankYouX.
“I was able to send a piece to space through the Axiom 2 mission, which was also the first Saudi Arabian female in space, which is cool. I got to go to Florida to watch it launch into space, which was an unforgettable experience as well.”
“We auctioned it actually at Sotheby’s New York when it came back. It’s a little tiny painting, 14 by 14 inch, but it did go to space, and it was a great experience.”
MY ART IS OFFICIALLY IN SPACE!!!!!! Wtf? 🚀🖼️ pic.twitter.com/2MA1ZTEWix
— ThankYouX (@ThankYouX) May 21, 2023
Notable sales to date
Rapid-fire Q&A
Personal style
“It’s interesting with style because you want to have this thread between all your artworks that feels cohesive, but you don’t want to repeat yourself.”
“If I describe it, very simply, I make abstract art as paintings, and then when it’s the NFT or digital works, I like to think of it as this kind of conceptual pitch deck that I’m sending to museums to try and get a show with them.”
Influences
“Frank Stella is my favorite artist, and I think that he was someone that I looked at that was just so inspiring because you see his evolution of change over time and his different styles.”
“My geometric patterns were heavily inspired by Frank Stella from my love of his work. I didn’t want my patterns to look like Frank’s work because, at first, I was just messing around, seeing if I could recreate stuff like him.”
“Once I got to my place, I felt very good about it, so shout out to Frank without even knowing it, helping me shift careers, not only artistically but over time, how he was able to keep growing.”
“In the digital space, I would say people that maybe not so much as an influence but that are inspiring would be Victor Mosquera and Grant Yun. Both are great.”
Notable collector
“Seedphrase — aka Danny. He collected the piece from the Contemporary Day sale in London, and I couldn’t imagine a better person for that to go to. That was our first time really connecting during that auction.”
“I feel like I have this forever bond with him because it was like a special moment for both of us, and we’ve become good friends from that. I have so many collectors that I’m thankful for, so it’s hard to name a bunch without leaving some out.”
Which hot NFT artist should we be paying attention to?
“I would say Yatreda and Seneca. I think both of them have very inspiring stories behind their works.”
“I look at art all day long, as we all do, but when I saw Yatreda’s first drop on Nifty Gateway, it just stopped me. I was like, ‘This is so different,’ and what I like in the NFT space is when I see something that doesn’t seem to belong here.”
“With Seneca, I knew her because of her involvement early on in creating the original character for Bored Apes, but when we met, she showed me other stuff she was doing, and I was like, ‘Wait, that’s you?’”
“I don’t often think this, but when I saw what she’s looking to do, I thought she’s going to blow up in the traditional art world. She has this path that she’s kind of coming up through NFTs, but she’s going to be one of those people that transcends all of it. Huge respect to her and how she creates, why she creates, and what she creates.”
Favorite NFT in your wallet
“My CryptoPunk #4974. I bought this punk after another Sotheby’s auction in London in 2022. I was having good auction results; they were getting early bids, and I felt bold, and I was like, ‘You know what? I want this punk, and it’s at a good price, so I’m going to buy it.’ I used some of the money from that auction for the punk.”
What advice would you give to any physical artists who want to dip their toe into the world of NFTs?
“Do it for the right reasons, and not everything needs to be an NFT. I think, try to figure out use cases for the blockchain that could make sense, and once you find it, you’ll realize that those four gallery walls will just fall down flat, and there’s just an endless plane of possibilities that are out there that weren’t possible a few years ago.”
Do you listen to music when creating art?
“Always. Every time I paint and create, I listen to music. It’s random in a sense, but it’s like a specific random because the taste, the genres jump so far. Can be from the 1990s to early 2000s, punk and hardcore music. It’s very chaotic and screaming and all this stuff.”
“Also, film scores. That’s where I fell in love with Hans [Zimmer] with my work because I worked with Hans. Hans makes music, and his music is my painting. I also listen to some weird electronic stuff as well.”
Links:
Sotheby’s “inertia” exhibition: sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/thankyoux-1
Website: thankyoux.com/
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