Pace Gallery is launching their custom-built NFT platform Pace Verso on 22 November – created in partnership with the Palm Network and inaugurated with a sale of digital artworks by Lucas Samaras. On 29 November, the platform will also feature works by Glenn Kaino and DRIFT with Don Diablo (the gallery will also be presenting NFTs by Kaino and DRIFT at its IRL booth at Art Basel Miami).
Pace has also announced Kaino’s NFT project Pass the Baton, conceived in collaboration with the Olympian Tommie Smith (known for his silent salute-protest at the 1968 Games) which ‘utilizes NFTs to facilitate a generative and enduring crypto-giving structure that aims to rethink the sustainability of philanthropy by directly funding social justice-oriented activists and organizations.’ Digital baton NFTs (a reference to Smith’s record-breaking relay races) will carry the names of ‘prominent activists, advocates and changemakers’ linking to social justice nonprofits – including Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin and founder of the Trayvon Martin Foundation, and Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP – with smart contracts designed to ensure that the organisations receive ongoing support. The project will launch on www.baton.art next month in partnership with the startup studio UNOPND via Hashed.
Pace president and CEO Marc Glimcher said in a statement: ‘We became interested in creating a dedicated NFT platform for Pace when our artists expressed curiosity about making NFTs, and after we supported their first few NFT projects with other platforms. Our philosophy is to build the tools our artists need, and Pace Verso is now a core strand of our NFT programming.’
