By Stephanie Hunt for Charleston Magazine
Photos by Alice Keeney
From NFTs to kinetic installations, Charleston’s Mike Winkelmann is pushing the boundaries of digital art. Driving along Clements Ferry Road toward Beeple Studios is your first clue that you’re about to enter an alternate universe. The corridor stretching from the back side of Daniel Island toward Cainhoy and Highway 41 still has a few remnant marine repair shops and mom-and-pop operations, but today it’s largely industrial. Turn onto Charleston Regional Parkway toward the studio, and massive concrete-block buildings dominate the landscape—storage facilities, humongous distribution centers for Sam’s Club and Lowe’s, a FedEx hub. Hulking, boxy buildings with no windows, no personality—the underside of hulking consumerism. The environs feel worlds away from, say, the Gibbes Museum of Art’s Beaux Arts grandeur and exude little creative vibe. But don’t be fooled, this warehouse-heavy realm is where some of the buzziest work in the art world is being made.
