Mike Winkelmann (Beeple) — Beeple Studios opens in Charleston

2022

Artists: Mike Winkelmann (Beeple) · Year: 2022 · Medium: Physical gallery and production facility — Beeple's permanent studio and public exhibition space · Substrate: 50,000-square-foot renovated warehouse; exhibition galleries, production studios, media labs, artist-in-residence facilities · Place: Charleston, South Carolina, USA · Institution: Beeple Studios In September 2022, Mike Winkelmann opened Beeple Studios in Charleston, South Carolina — a 50,000-square-foot renovated warehouse that serves as his permanent production studio and as a public exhibition space for his own work and for visiting digital artists. The facility includes exhibition galleries for HUMAN ONE and related works, production studios, a dedicated video-capture facility, and artist-in-residence accommodations. It is the largest single-artist facility in the contemporary digital-art space and among the most substantial post-boom institutional investments any individual NFT-era artist has made. The opening is historically significant because it represents a specific kind of post-2021 positioning. Winkelmann's March 2021 Christie's sale for $69 million gave him the capital to build infrastructure; the decision to invest that capital into a permanent physical facility — rather than into further NFT releases or speculative investments — signaled a long-term commitment to his practice and to the broader field. Beeple Studios has hosted exhibitions of multiple other digital artists, residencies, and educational programs since opening. The Charleston location is deliberate. Winkelmann had been based in the Charleston area for years before the Everydays peak and chose to anchor his institutional presence there rather than relocate to New York or Los Angeles. The effect is to create a serious digital-art institution outside the traditional art-world geographic centers — a decentralizing move consistent with the broader crypto-art ideology. Beeple Studios continues to operate and has expanded its programming across the following years. Lore The studio was designed by local architects in consultation with Winkelmann's team; the renovation took over a year. The opening exhibition featured HUMAN ONE alongside a retrospective of the Everydays project. Winkelmann has stated publicly that the studios were funded entirely from his own resources and are intended to operate on a long-term, non-profit-like basis. The facility has hosted artist residencies for multiple generative and AI artists since 2022. Sources • Beeple Studios — official records (beepl.com) • Charleston Post and Courier — opening coverage (September 2022) • Artnet — Beeple Studios profile