Beeple, a digital artist, set out in May 2007 to create and share a new work of art online every day. He hasn't missed a day since, taking a new digital photograph every day for the past 5,000 days. EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, one of the most unusual bodies of work to emerge in the history of digital art, is made up of individual pieces known as EVERYDAYS.
Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, is a graphic designer and motion artist who has a prodigious digital output. The creative and often irreverent digital images of the South Carolina-based artist pushed him to the top of the digital art world. He has 1.8 million Instagram followers and high-profile collaborations with big brands like Louis Vuitton and Nike, as well as performers like Katy Perry and Childish Gambino.
The artist has stitched together recurring motifs and color schemes to form an artistic totality in EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS. Zooming in on individual works, which are organized in a broad chronological order, shows abstract, fantastical, grotesque, and absurd images, as well as current events and very intimate situations. The work regularly references society's fascination with and dread of technology, the desire for and resentment of money, and America's current political turmoil.
The significant difference between the images from Day 1 (1 May 2007) and Day 5,000 (7 January 2021) demonstrates Beeple's immense artistic progress. EVERYDAYS started out as a collection of simple doodles. Beeple took on abstract themes, color, form, and repetition as they started working in 3D. However, in the last five years, his digital photographs have become more contemporary, frequently reacting to current events.
“I almost look at it now like I’m a political cartoonist,” Beeple explains. “Except instead of doing sketches, I’m using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real-time.”